Their Bonds
by xmelonBreadx
Summary: He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they had ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they had talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud. [Sequel to The Unlikely Duo. Post-manga.]
1. Prologue: Once, the closest

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they had ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they had talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's note:** _Randoseru_ – those backpacks used by elementary kids in Japan

 _Aaaaaaand_ , here's the promised sequel! Notes about when will I update and other things are at the bottom, so for now, enjoy the prologue! :)

... .. .

 **General Disclaimer:** I do not own Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! Not the manga, not the anime, and especially not the characters. It all rightfully belongs to its wonderful author and artist, Amano Akira-san.

I also don't own the cover picture of this fanfiction. All rights belong to the one who made it, or owns it.

... .. .

 **Prologue: Once, the closest**

 _Six years_ —it wasn't until six long years when the two finally met again.

Of course, the moment he set foot on his beloved Namimori, the first thing Hibari Kyoya wanted to do was to immediately see a certain brunette—his best friend—Sawada Tsunayoshi, who he hadn't seen or contacted in those six long years. He was reluctant to after their regrettable parting, but when he finally had the courage to contact the brunette, by some horrible twist of fate—his mother's phone got snatched, along with Tsuna's mother's contact info.

And even with this misfortune, fate was still unkind—for Kyoya was only able to come back to his hometown on the early morning of the new school year.

Clicking his tongue in dismay at the turn of events, the second year now walked through the still empty hallways of Namimori Middle School, the black _gakuran_ from his previous school rising slightly in the wind as he increased his pace, while delinquents he had once bitten to death followed quietly behind him in unbridled loyalty. On that early April morning, just a few hours before the school gates opened, Kyoya took control of the middle school's meager Disciplinary Committee and became its chairman. The promise he had made to himself back then—of protecting his dear Namimori and of the ways he could do so—never once forgotten.

When the first day of school finally ended, and the disciplining of the students left to his second-in-command, Kusakabe Tetsuya, Kyoya finally made his way to the Sawada household, stopping every now and then to bite some unruly herbivores to death, noting to himself how much they had increased in those six years he was away.

A boy's face was hit harder than intended when the skylark remembered with annoyance and a little bit of guilt on how long it had been, knocking the boy unconscious immediately. He quickly finished the other three—deciding to make them unconscious just like their friend—and was about to continue his way when he saw another group crowding in the park.

Kyoya glared at their backs, writing another mental note as he silently approached them to clean up Namimori after his long awaited reunion, his annoyance quickly turning to anger as he saw how much of the undisciplined herbivores now crowded his beloved town, and how they have been keeping him from finally meeting Tsuna.

So it was then a great shock, when Kyoya finally disposed all the herbivores and turned around to continue his way, when he saw _him_ —the untamed auburn hair, the still petite frame, and the large, all too familiar caramel-brown eyes.

"Tsunayoshi."

A long time ago, fate had brought them together and took them apart, and now, once more, fate created another chance meeting for them—for the twelve-year old Sawada Tsunayoshi and the soon-to-be fourteen-year old Hibari Kyoya. Moreover, just like back then—it was spring, with multitudes of cherry blossom trees surrounding the two, the delicate flowers of the seasonal trees dancing all over them to an unknown tune.

It was surreal, phantasmagoric—an encounter that was almost like a dream, but the moment could never last, as it was broken by one, honest question from the brunette.

"I'm sorry… do I know you?"

Blue-gray eyes quickly widened as caramel-brown ones scanned him in confusion—clearly trying to recognize him. For what felt like a long moment, Kyoya stood there in shock. His heart felt like it stopped, his skin felt oddly cold, while his mind rejected in vain the blatant implications of the brunette's words.

Was this some kind a joke?

"Don't you remember me?" Kyoya asked, voice wavering a bit. He stepped closer. "It's me, Kyoya."

There was a flicker of recognition in the brunette's eyes before it was replaced again by confusion— _and was that pain?—_ before Tsuna lowered his face and apologetically shook his head.

"…I'm sorry," he said again, nearly a whisper.

Kyoya blinked. _No—_

"But I don't know any Kyoya-san."

 _Wrong._ There was definitely something wrong—Kyoya could just feel it. Besides, Tsuna couldn't just easily forget that one year, right? Especially after everything that had happened, after everything they had shared, even if it may had been six long years, _Tsunayoshi couldn't—shouldn't be able to easily forget—_

 _Right?_

And so the silence between the two boys grew as Kyoya continued to stare in disbelief at the brunette. Tsuna, on the other hand, returned the stare with mixed confusion and apology. And when the younger of the two couldn't take the quietness anymore, he anxiously gripped the strap of his _randoseru_ and bowed his head in goodbye.

But when he turned around to make his leave—a strong hand suddenly grabbed his lower arm, effectively stopping him, sounds of metals clacking to the ground reverberating in the instance. Tsuna was pulled back then, nearly falling from the force, before he was roughly turned around—face suddenly in close proximity with the raven-haired's.

Blue-gray irises quickly moved back and forth as it searched for something in the eyes in front of it, some sort of recognition, an acknowledgement— _anything_ that could say that _Tsunayoshi_ _didn't_ _just_ —and yet, Kyoya could only see, _hear_ , two things from those honest and familiar caramel-brown brown eyes.

 _I'm not lying._

 _I don't know you._

Even without concrete words, Kyoya couldn't believe how much it stung to be told that.

"P-Please, let me go," Tsuna suddenly pleaded, his voice laced with fear when the raven-haired painfully tightened his grip on his arm, the taller boy's narrow eyes now glaring menacingly at him.

" _Why?_ " Kyoya demanded. "Why—how could you forget, Tsunayoshi?"

But the brunette didn't answer him. Tsuna was now only trying—desperately—to wrench his arm from his iron grip. "Please—"

"Answer me!" _Why are you pulling away?_

"Let—"

"What happened?!" _Tell me!_

"Go!"

And then, suddenly—Kyoya found himself slowly drifting away from Tsuna, belatedly registering that he was, in fact, pushed away—pushed by the very same brunette who had once irritatingly, persuasively—and then warmly, pulled him to his life.

Kyoya staggered backward, eyes staring all the while in shock and disbelief at Tsuna, who was now cowering in fear of him. And for a moment—barely a fraction of a second—the raven-haired couldn't recognize the boy in front of him.

Where was the annoyingly brave Tsuna of back then?

"I-I'm sorry," Tsuna apologized once more, and perhaps, the last time. "B-But I-I think you've m-mistaken me f-for someone e-else." He swiftly inclined his head then, before turning around and dashing away, leaving Kyoya to stare dumbfoundedly at his quickly retreating form.

... .. .

Weeks had passed since that meeting, but Kyoya still couldn't accept that Tsuna had forgotten about him.

He foolishly hoped that there's still something the brunette remembered about their days together, and so—in those weeks, Kyoya tried, _really tried_ , to make Tsuna recall. But every time he approached him, the brunette would suddenly pale in fear and ran away from him.

His growing reputation as Namimori's most fearsome man wasn't helping either.

On the few chances that he did get to talk to him, which was always, _always_ after he saved him from his bullies— _why was he bullied?_ —Tsuna would only give him the same fearful, averting gaze, and the same desperate, stuttered responses—"I-I'm sorry, H-Hibari-san." "Y-You must be m-mistaken." "P-Please, d-don't bite me t-to d-death."

"P-Please, just l-leave me a-alone!"

... .. .

After that, Kyoya at last searched for Tsuna's old classmates, the people he also had adventures with, to learn the truth. After all, he still felt something was amiss with everything—and finally, he got his answers from two people who willingly talked to him—Yamamoto Takeshi and Sasagawa Kyoko.

"Tsuna went into a two-day coma on the day you left," Takeshi began, his backside resting against the back wall of their elementary school building. In the far distance, he could hear other students playing in the front yard of their school. He tightened his clenched hands as he stared straight into Kyoya's eyes. "I don't know why you never heard, but when he woke up, Tsuna managed to forget _nearly everything_ that happened in that one year, Hibari. He barely remembered us, and he forgot everything about _you_."

He averted his eyes to the ground. "We—during our last year in kindergarten, we all tried to make Tsuna remember, to be friends with him again, but Tsuna—he—he suddenly went back to his shy self and became wary of us. He even _pushed_ _us_ away once when we got too… forward."

"It's harder now to be friends with him," it was Kyoko now who spoke, "because ever since we entered elementary school, not once did we became classmates with Tsuna-kun. When we try to talk or even greet him outside of class, Tsuna-kun would always shy away from us. And I don't think…" the brunette's eyes narrowed in melancholy then, "he could even remember us anymore."

And they may not know it yet, but once they enter middle school, not only Tsuna's wariness of them—but puberty, social conformity, peer pressure, and such—would make it hard for them to restore their friendship.

Kyoya could only stare at the two with widened eyes then. He couldn't believe what he just heard—he knew he left Tsuna when he needed him the most, but he didn't know his leave could affect the brunette so much that his mind would decide to just forget everything—forget all the pain of being left behind by the people he loved. He also had a feeling his mother knew a bit about this, maybe about Tsuna getting into a coma, though she may had hidden it from him so that he wouldn't feel guilty about it.

In quiet frustration, Kyoya gritted his teeth and clenched his hands hard—making his nails dig deep into his palms, drawing blood.

Was fate still playing with them?

... .. .

For two more weeks, Kyoya tried, desperately and unsuccessfully, to bring his best friend back—did his best to bring back the memories of the secrets and warmth they had shared. For two weeks he hopelessly tried—

Until finally, _crushingly_ —

Kyoya had enough.

That this was enough.

That the friendship he had longed for and treasured had disappeared with that single, necessary move.

On the third month of Kyoya's return to Namimori, he finally resigned and accepted that his best friend—Sawada Tsunayoshi—was now long gone, replaced by a cowering herbivore who would run at the mere sight of him. Kyoya had made a promise to himself then, just like he once did on that afternoon to his beloved Namimori, that even if Tsuna could no longer remember, he would watch and protect him from afar, just like a cloud.

 _Yes, just like a cloud,_ Kyoya mused to himself, finally letting the memories from two years ago slowly fade away. He continued to watch over the brunette, who was down below on their school's courtyard, laughing and joking around with his two friends—with the baseball ace, Yamamoto Takeshi, and with the Italian transfer student, Gokudera Hayato.

Once, when the infant had visited him to give him his half Vongola Ring, the eternal five-year old had told him that Tsuna was his Sky— _"Rain, Storm, Cloud, Sun, Mist, and Lightning, he influences all of them. He understands and accepts all of them, Hibari. And you are his Cloud—the aloof, drifting Cloud that protects the Family from an independent standpoint, and whom nothing can ever bind."_

"How fitting," the raven-haired uttered as he smirked. He slowly removed his gaze then from the group and redirected it to his now complete Cloud Vongola Ring—to the only connection he had left to Sawada Tsunayoshi.

A flicker of what could have been sadness or irritation passed over Kyoya's blue-gray eyes. The ring reminded him a little bit too much of the one he had once received from the brunette, the one that was destroyed in a fight far too long ago. After a glare and a quick turn of his feet, Kyoya dismissed the memory from his mind, continuing then down the stairs and into the corridor, finally starting his inspection for any damage left unfixed from the "Ring Battles" a week ago.

And so, just like the Cloud that he was, Hibari Kyoya continues to drift about, independent and alone; every now and then remembering—as he patrolled the streets of Namimori or quietly napped on the roof of his school—the time when he was the closest to the Sky.

... .. .

 **Author's note II:**

 **1.** I know, this is pre- and within-manga. But it's the prologue, you know? Chapter 1 and so on will be post-manga.

 **2.** _ **For now,**_ updates will be, again, every other day. (Rejoice!) But since I'm freaking _extra_ busy now, it might (surely) change. But don't worry - I'm telling you now, this fic will never, _ever_ go on hiatus. Heck no. Over my dead body. The worst thing that could happen is a once-a-week update. Yes, that's the _worst._ I'll also notify you guys beforehand if the update days will change.

 **3.** Yeah, since I'm busy, I might not be able to reply to all your reviews. I'll still do my best though.

 **4.** Lastly, belated Happy Birthday Giotto!

See you guys the day after tomorrow!

Ciao~


	2. Chapter 1: The present

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they had ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they had talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's note:  
**

 **1.** First, let me thank you all for the reviews! I guess a lot of you had been eagerly waiting for this sequel! (Even when you know you'll get your heart hurt reading this :D As such, I properly placed the Hurt/Comfort genre I forgot) Also, thanks for the follows, and— _gasps_ —favorites?! Really people, thank you!

 **2.** As you can see, this chapter is _long_ in my standards (3k+). And yes, very much unlike TUD, all the chapters of this fanfic are 2.5k+ long, and _almost all_ of them are actually more than 3k. Well, partly because of that, **there will be intervals after every** ** **chapter**** (actually, until a certain chapter only). The intervals will be a retelling of somewhat-randomly picked episodes/chapters which are, unsurprisingly, have a much lower word count than the chapters.

 **3.** Lastly, please do take note that **H** **umor** is one of the genre tagged to this fanfic, so rest assured that your hearts won't break every chapter (...I think).

 **[Edited 1/29/2016 - grammar correction]**

... .. .

 **Chapter 1: The present**

For once, Sawada Tsunayoshi felt some semblance of peace which he very rarely got since the day the tutor _slash_ hitman _slash_ demon Reborn came to his life, much less when the former Arcobaleno announced a month ago that he would train him to become Neo Vongola Primo—to which Tsuna didn't really see much of difference from being Vongola Decimo, except maybe for the title.

And also maybe for some of the few things that came with rebuilding a 400-year old Mafia Family from the bottom-up.

For starters, just a few days after he vehemently denied to become Neo Vongola Primo or still be involved with the Mafia, Talbot came and offered (confiscated) to make his and his Guardians' Vongola Gears into Rings worthy of "the new and powerful Vongola Famiglia", as the blindfolded man had said, and proceeded to christen the new weapons as "Neo Vongola Rings". He returned Natsu and the others as rings too, and were later called Vongola Animal Rings.

With a few rattling of a metal chain, Tsuna took out his Neo Vongola Ring of the Sky—which he now mostly wore around his neck—and gazed at it. Unlike the acceptance of the title of Neo Primo, he wasn't all that against of creating the new and much more powerful weapons, since they were really useful when it came to protecting his family. But then Talbot had to use his _blood_ , even having the nerve to name the bloody vials _Absolution_ , to make the new rings powerful and all that.

Tsuna sighed once more as the trauma of getting _three freaking vials full_ of blood from him still hadn't left his mind. When he had asked Talbot why he needed to take so many when one was clearly enough, the very old man had the audacity to laugh before finally telling him that they were for "use", "backup", and "display". Tsuna was dead sure the last one shouldn't count.

Refocusing his gaze to his Ring, the brunette scrunched his brows together as one sentence resonated in his mind—the string of words the Vongola Metal Craftsman had uttered to him before he left with his then-Vongola Gear.

" _With your generation, Vongola can finally continue to be what it was supposed to be—a Famiglia that protects others."_

Those words stuck to the young maybe-boss-to-be, and on the days that followed, Tsuna seriously thought about his inheritance of the most powerful Mafia Famiglia in Italy. He still hated Vongola's bloody history, the killings and mistaken actions done in the name of the Famiglia—and so, one night during his training, Tsuna told Reborn, though still a bit reluctantly, that he would finally accept the role of Neo Vongola Primo. But as the title implied—Tsuna resolutely told the ex-Arcobaleno that he would destroy the current Vongola, much like what he had once said to the previous Vongola Bosses, and create a new one.

Reborn had smiled at his decision then, and subsequently threw a Vongola-style party the next day to let everyone know.

That was another thing that came with to the road of becoming Neo Vongola Primo—Tsuna's training, or rather, its increased severity and amount. Reborn _made sure_ of that. That's why for the past month, Tsuna always came home with a body that ached from head to toe, and always at midnight no less, before he would be woken up with a one-ton mallet or a sniper gun or whatever it was that fancied Reborn at four o'clock the next morning.

That's also why today was such a rarity—Reborn was out since yesterday to "confirm some things for the Neo Vongola", begrudgingly giving Tsuna his much-needed rest days, though not without a promise of _special remedial training_ for the few days he was out. _Damn._ Tsuna buried the promise deep in the recesses of his mind before finally concentrating to the task at hand—which was reading Enma's letter.

This was another thing that came, quite unexpectedly, with the rebuilding of the Vongola Famiglia. The Simon was their allied Famiglia since Primo's time. Over the years they had weakened, though since Tsuna decided to rebuild Vongola, Enma too as Simon's current boss, decided to reestablish their Famiglia—and so went to Italy with his whole Family to do so.

Tsuna smiled as he remembered the promise he had made with Enma on the day of the Simon Famiglia's farewell party—that was, to write letters to each other, just like what their ancestors' did. Julie quickly gave his honest remark when he overheard on how it would be much easier to just e-mail each other, and how lame it was to write letters in the digital age they were in.

The would-be-Neo Primo now chuckled as he recalled that, the same reaction he and Enma had given to Julie, leaving the latter dumbfounded, before he finally set his eyes on Enma's letter and began reading it.

 _Dear Tsuna-kun,_

 _I was really happy when I finally got your letter. Immediately after I read it, I searched for some papers and pen to write a reply, since it takes about a week for a letter to get there. Though I guess when you're finally reading this, it's already been two weeks huh?_

 _I'm also glad everyone is doing well back there in Japan. The same can be said here too—_

 _Since the day after we arrived here in Italy, Adelheid had been giving us a strict training regimen, while also keeping us up with our studies, since in her words, "a student's duty is to study."_

 _On the other hand, Koyo was always in a bad mood for the first few days after our arrival. A lot of Vongola's other allied Famiglia come and go here in the main HQ, and since we're relatively unknown, a lot of them had been saying… not so good things about us. And you know how Koyo is when it comes to Simon—and so on the fourth day since our arrival, he challenge one of the people who had been talking been our backs and KO'd him. Thankfully, no one said anything bad about our Famiglia anymore after that._

 _I don't know if it's because we're in a foreign country or in the main headquarters of the Famiglia we use to hate (sorry, Tsuna-kun!), but Rauji had been sticking close to me since we arrived here. He's actually just a few feet behind me as I'm writing this._

 _Julie still spends most of his time outside, most likely flirting with girls. I was actually amazed to learn that he's actually fluent in Italian, though he may have studied it so that he can talk to the girls here. One time, when he tried to flirt with Oregano-san, your father's subordinate, he got slapped real hard on the cheek. The red handprint didn't disappear for days after that. Although, Tsuna-kun, even if Julie may be like this—ever since I made the decision of restoring Simon, he seemed to take his duties more seriously—he's attending our meetings most of the time now, and follows the orders given to him._

 _Shitopi-chan is the same as always—still being herself, though I don't really want to change that._

 _Surprisingly, Kaoru—who I thought will be more reserved than usual—is actually playing baseball with Timoteo-san's guardians whenever they're here (he actually taught them how to play!). He also trains his baseball skills everyday alongside the training Adelheid has been giving us. I guess Yamamoto-san had really been a big influence on him._

 _As for me, I'm still trying to settle in with my duties as the boss, which is a lot more difficult than I first imagined. I'm glad Adelheid still helps me, although—when she heard about your new training regimen, she made everyone's ten times more difficult than the last one—ah but, it's not as if I'm angry at you or anything for that, Tsuna-kun! I'm actually glad that Adelheid did, because though Simon won't be as strong as Vongola, I at least want our Famiglia to be strong enough to stand beside yours._

 _That's why I'm also grateful that Timoteo-san was kind enough not only for letting us stay here in the main Vongola HQ, but also for helping us rebuild our Famiglia. I'll surely repay his kindness one day._

 _I don't really know how long we're going stay here—a year maybe?—but until we meet again Tsuna-kun, I'll eagerly wait for your next letter._

 _Sincerely, your friend,_

 _Enma_

The smile on Tsuna's lips never left as he read the letter. Though he missed his friend from time to time, he was nonetheless glad that the red-haired and his family went to Italy to restore their Famiglia—because with that one decision, Tsuna could see how Enma and the others were beginning to change, and for the better.

Before placing the letter underneath the book beside him, Tsuna mentally told himself to write a reply immediately after he got back inside their house. He then slid away his hands behind him along with his weight, feeling the worn wood of their _engawa_ on his rough palms as he did. He raised his face to the sky next, and savored on the warmth the morning sun was giving him, at the coolness the wind was tickling him with.

Tsuna already forgot how long it had been since he had the house all to himself—everyone was out today for some big sale shopping, Natsu was still in his Ring form, Gokudera and Yamamoto were miraculously not visiting him today, and Reborn wouldn't be back until after a few more days.

All in all, this was the peace Tsuna once had, and really missed, before Reborn came. Though it wasn't like he hated the constant bickering and laughter he was now surrounded with—it was just sometimes, for a few moments, he would like some silence.

 _Just like those times with the future Hibari-san._ Tsuna slowly opened his eyes he had unknowingly closed. There were times when the future Hibari was in a good mood and let him rest a little bit during his training. Most of those times Kusakabe and Lal were in, but during the times when the two were left alone, somehow, the silence between them wasn't that of awkwardness or unfamiliarity—but that of a strange ease and comfort that Tsuna didn't know he could have with the scary skylark.

Tsuna closed his eyes again, letting his thoughts wander until it settled on a certain incident, not too long ago, in a battle of pride and truth of Giotto and Cozarto's past.

" _Watch my fight."_

More than once he had asked himself why his usually reserved and distant guardian had suddenly shown something akin to concern—or maybe it really was concern?—on the day his mind partly shut down on the thought that his father was a murderer.

Maybe _that_ was the reason.

But then again, as Tsuna let himself wander more, there was another reason why he asked himself again and again why Hibari did what he did back then—because since the first time he had heard those words, Tsuna could feel this odd sense of _familiarity_ , not only to the aloof-kind of concern from the skylark, but from Hibari himself—something he had, now that he pondered over it a little more, _always_ felt with the raven-haired, his fear towards the older boy the only thing getting in the way from him ever feeling so.

 _Is that why I always felt safe with Hibari-san around?_ Not only because he felt intimately familiar, but also because he could feel this peculiarly nostalgic sense of security whenever the skylark was around?

Tsuna shook his head at those thoughts. _No_ —he always felt that way because Hibari was his strongest Guardian, and not because of that weird familiarity or oddly nostalgic security he had only recently discovered—or acknowledged.

He was still confused as to why he had these strange feelings towards the scariest and probably the most bloodthirsty person he had ever known, but he felt safe around Hibari because he was strong.

And that was it.

Yet—as Tsuna looked up once more at the wide and cloudy sky, he couldn't help but have doubts on his own conviction.

... .. .

The loud creak of a small door opening echoed in the empty hallway as one smartly dressed five-year old came out from one of his many secret tunnels within the middle school. No one knew how he managed to make such tunnels without anyone noticing, but Reborn could care less about the slight-chance of its improbability and continued to walk leisurely to his destination, his small baby steps presently the only sound that could be heard in the nearly deserted building.

Now standing before a tall sliding door, the hitman could feel the bloodlust emanated by the only person beyond it, but again, he could care less, as he energetically slid open the door and greeted the only occupant of the room.

"Ciaossu, Hibari. It's a fine evening today, isn't it?"

Hibari growled first in reply. He wasn't in the mood today. "What are you doing here, infant?"

Reborn didn't answer immediately. He noted how the fellow raven-haired was for the moment—sleeved arms crossed, upright back to him, dark _gakuran_ perched firmly on shoulders while narrow blue-gray eyes gazed distractedly outside at the sunset sky. Without a sound, the infant walked towards Hibari's desk, feeling the increasing bloodlust—yet the skylark remained still—before he hopped onto the dark wood and sat down comfortably.

"I just want to confirm some things, Hibari," Reborn finally began, hands resting on thighs as he stared up at the skylark, who still refused to face him. "When will you create the Foundation?"

From the clear glass window, the hitman could clearly see Hibari blink in surprise at the question, before he narrowed his blue-gray eyes and voiced a demand.

"Why are you asking?"

Reborn helpfully answered. "As you know, Tsuna decided to destroy the current Vongola in order to create a new one, ironically to return the Famiglia to what it's first supposed to be. Because of that, the CEDEF will be abolished—and the Foundation will take its place instead. Since the CEDEF was created by Primo's Cloud Guardian, Alaude, then doesn't it make sense to replace it with the organization Tsuna's Cloud Guardian created, or in this case will create—the Foundation?"

Hibari raised a brow. "If I remember correctly, the purpose of the Foundation is the study and research of Box Weapons, and not as external advisors to some Famiglia."

The hitman lowered his fedora to hide the mirth in his beady eyes. He smirked though. "I'm surprised you know that—about the purpose of the CEDEF I mean." Hibari still growled. "You know, Tsuna's actually the one who suggested it, about replacing CEDEF with your Foundation," Reborn revealed as he looked up once more. He could see the skylark was caught again in surprise. "On the day he told me he'll accept the role of Neo Primo and create a new Vongola, I asked Tsuna how he wants the new Famiglia to be. He told me he wanted it be just like how Primo first envisioned the family—an organization that protects others. But he also said that the Family might still need external advisors, and so suggested to replace CEDEF with the Foundation."

"But the little animal only _suggested_ it, infant. That doesn't mean it should be done," Hibari retaliated.

Surprisingly, Reborn _psshed_ first at the skylark's retribution _._ "It's a remarkably good suggestion, especially coming from Dame-Tsuna. So I'll implement it."

Hibari scowled in response.

"Though thinking about another independent organization, I guess the Varia will stay, though them being an assassination squad might change…" Reborn offhandedly added, before turning his attention back to Hibari's reflection on the glass window. He smiled. "You could just think of this as an added function of the Foundation, Hibari."

The skylark was still silent—much too silent—making Reborn wonder if the prefect was even considering his slightly-impromptu proposal. Minutes passed by as the infant waited for Hibari's answer, and when the quietness only thickened, the smile on Reborn's face turned into a serious line as he finally decided to ask what he really came for that evening—

"Are you going to stay as Tsuna's Guardian?"

To this question only, did Hibari finally turned around and fully acknowledged the infant's presence. Still, the ever aloof Guardian did not speak, but silently asked with his eyes, what Reborn had meant.

"It's been more than a month already since Mukuro's release," Reborn started, crossing his arms. "You only agreed to be the Cloud Guardian since you wanted to fight Mukuro and make him pay for your defeat, but you didn't have a way to get to him then, so I was able to make you one of Tsuna's Guardians by promising you of a chance to fight Mukuro again if you did." The hitman lowered his head a fraction then, his fedora partly shadowing his eyes. "But now we both know that you no longer needed that position to fight Mukuro. You could just go to that pineapple-head's base and challenge him anytime you want. And if he suddenly disappears, you could just threaten Tsuna or Chrome for his whereabouts."

Reborn paused for a moment as he now tried to read the impassive face before him. He couldn't get anything. "It's been _more than a month_ already, Hibari," he repeated, "and I'm wondering why you're still not chucking that Cloud Ring to Tsuna's face and leave. You could if you want to. Especially after the dispute with Simon—and yet, you're still keeping the Ring. So what I'm asking now, Hibari, is what making you stay?"

The infant kept his steady gaze at the skylark then, and this time he would wait for the answer no matter how long it would take for Hibari to reply—though he didn't really had to wait long this time.

Because moments after Hibari quietly turned back to the clear glass window, eyes locked once more to the now darkened sky, he finally gave his answer to Reborn's probing question.

"It's because I would never leave Sawada Tsunayoshi's side."

Reborn's head snapped up at the response. He stared questioningly at Hibari's back.

"What exactly is your relationship with Tsuna?"

When the skylark didn't answer immediately, the infant added, "And don't you dare dodge this question Hibari. I've always been observing you lot ever since I came here. I can _see_ how you always watch over Tsuna, silently protecting him—just like a Cloud. That's one of the reasons why I chose you to be his Cloud Guardian."

"And it's not only you who I find a little suspicious." Reborn inclined his head then, his beady eyes hidden now by the shadow of his fedora. "There's also Yamamoto, Kyoko, Ryohei—and even Kurokawa Hana. Before they became even more involved with him, I noticed how they would sometimes throw Tsuna a wistful glance, or a worried stare—I thought it was because he was being bullied, but now that that stopped, those four _still_ give him those looks from time to time. Which made me think, that they—no, _you five_ are hiding something—know something more about Tsuna than you would let on."

The infant paused for a moment, to let Hibari absorb what he just said, before he lifted his head up and gazed again at the skylark's back. "I'm not the world's greatest hitman for nothing, Hibari. Observation and information gathering are some of my forte—but, frustratingly enough, the only thing I ever found out about you six was that that you all studied from the same kindergarten together, and nothing else, since I never got to visit your alma mater seeing that it got destroyed by a fire five years ago, burning all the information I needed."

"Why… are you only asking this now, infant?" Hibari inquired after a short while of silence.

The next reticence was far shorter before Reborn answered. "It's because I don't want the new Vongola to end up like the first generation," _with betrayals and tears_ , he mentally added, "though, I highly doubt your generation will end up like that. Still, I'm a bit concerned at what you all could be hiding, especially what _you_ have been surely keeping from us, Hibari."

The skylark didn't react immediately to Reborn's provocation. He first continued to watch in mild fascination the slow moving clouds, at the way they blocked out the moon's light as they passed in front of the faraway satellite, engulfing the world in momentary darkness before letting the silvery light shine again.

Two years ago, if anyone would have asked him of the bond he used to have with Sawada Tsunayoshi, Hibari Kyoya—the aloof, bloodthirsty, and most terrifying prefect of Namimori—would have answered with a pensive smile.

But that was two years ago.

Now, if anyone would ask, Hibari would answer them with a smirk, a smile of scorn—just like right now, though he wondered if the infant could see.

"You don't have to concern yourself with that anymore, infant," he finally answered. "Because whatever that little animal and I once had, is now long gone."

And as Hibari let the memories of those days assault his mind once more like they did since early that morning—the memories of the laughter, the warmth, the quiet content—rendering him in a hazy dullness, one promise managed to surface from his cloudy mind, the one he made two years back.

"I'll continue to protect him," he suddenly voiced out, his smirk now gone, surprising Reborn, "watch over him, from afar, just like what I have always done, infant."

 _And always will._


	3. Interval I

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they had ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they had talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s):** Ep. 05/Ch. 16

 **Author's note: (NOTE OF DOOM! - not really)**

 **1.** Okay, reality is really hogging all my attention now, so I have to adapt to a twice-a-week update scheme. **This time, updates will be every Wednesdays and Saturdays.** So expect the next chapter of TB (haha) on Wednesday.

 **2.** I want to say this again - after every _chapter_ there will be **intervals** , which will be retellings of certain chapters/episodes. Which chapter/episode retold will be cited (as shown above).

 **3.** _Jutte –_ also spelled _jitte_ , is a specialized metal (or sometimes wood) rod-like weapon with one hook protruding from the side. It was used by the police during the Edo period in Japan.

... .. .

 **Interval I: Contact**

Tsuna just _punched_ him.

Sawada Tsunayoshi—his once-best friend, now the weakest herbivore he had ever known, had actually landed a hit on him— _the_ Hibari Kyoya.

And it didn't end with just that. The brunette even used a goddamned slipper to slap him in the head whilst calling him a _fool_ —of all things.

 _Wao._

This was the first time Kyoya wanted to bite Tsuna _seriously_ to death, even in consideration of their long gone friendship.

"Can I kill you?" he asked the brunette as he glared menacingly at him. The head prefect found it really strange that Tsuna was only in his boxers, a weirdly beautiful orange flame burning brightly on his forehead. Well, at least he could use his indecency as an excuse to bite him to death.

"That's enough." Kyoya turned to his side. That was the first time he noticed the infant sitting on the windowsill. "You're strong after all."

The raven-haired immediately sensed the other's strength. He lunged at the child then—and easily, the infant blocked his fierce attack with a _jutte_.

"Wao, you're amazing," Kyoya said with a smirk. He could feel his bloodlust intensifying. Although, immediately after he said that, the infant brought out a bomb and used the explosion to escape with the herbivores.

"Tch."

... .. .

Hours later, Kyoya could still feel the desire to fight that strong infant—and fleetingly, as he gazed out from the open window, he wondered if that child was the same as Fon—after all, it's impossible for a five-year old to be _that_ strong.

"I want to see that infant again." Could that child be also the reason why Tsuna was changing? It didn't escaped his eyes how the infant shot the brunette and somehow turned him into something— _someone_ _stronger_. He had also been hearing rumors, and witnessed some of them too, of Tsuna running around in his boxers and managing feats his former, cowardly self couldn't.

Kyoya narrowed his eyes. Tsuna was constantly bullied since even amongst the herbivores, he was weak, and the raven-haired couldn't always be there to save him from his wretched assailants. And even with the strict discipline he was enforcing not only to his school, but also to his beloved Namimori—the bullying wouldn't stop.

But, if that infant could somehow help Tsuna become strong, strong enough to protect himself—

Then Kyoya wouldn't mind entrusting the brunette to him.

He wouldn't also mind if the day came when Tsuna would no longer need his protection—his existence.

Though, even if that day came, Kyoya wouldn't stop watching over him. After all, he had promised to himself that he would no longer leave Tsuna's side.

And he would make sure not to break his promise this time.


	4. Chapter 2: Tear

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

... .. .

 **Chapter 2: Tear**

Soft light shone out from the lime-colored blinds as morning came, stirring Tsuna awoke, yet the brunette only tightened his closed eyes and snuggled more to the warmth of his blanket. He groaned, as dreamland evaded him, before he finally opened his caramel-brown eyes and looked silently at his alarm clock.

Blink.

 _Damn it!_ Far too quickly he sat up, and so clumsily fell from his bed, before he scrambled towards his bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, quickly stripping his pajamas next in favor of his school uniform. He swiftly grabbed his school bag, pushing in school paraphernalia that scattered on his desk, before he finally went down the stairs only to unsurprisingly trip on the last few steps.

"Ara, Tsu-kun! Why—"

"Sorry—can't talk—late—bye!" Tsuna rapidly interjected as he grabbed the only food he could see—a single slice of buttered bread—while still noticing in his hastiness the absence of Lambo and the others at the dining table, the whole breakfast probably already devoured by them.

 _Mou! How can I be an hour late!? And why didn't Kaa-san wake me!_ Bolting out of their front door, he mentally cursed again at his predicament, and Tsuna wasn't surprised anymore when there was no Gokudera or Yamamoto waiting for him outside. He did pale though when he remembered a certain skylark who was _definitely_ waiting for him at the school gates—metal tonfas surely nice and ready for a good biting.

Tsuna briefly wondered if he should go back and fake a cold or something.

The thought was quickly dismissed since he knew how Reborn would violently react for skipping school for no good reason—with a short course of over-the-top punishments and scarring humiliations—and less than ten minutes after he left home, Tsuna was now finally standing before the school entrance.

For a few moments, he rested—to catch his breath and to settle his heart, which was beating furiously not only from the mad sprint, but also from the fact that he didn't see any other students hurrying to school—not in the streets he went through, not even now near Nami-Chuu. Tsuna was the only one there, still panting heavily from the run.

Stranger still, even the Disciplinary Committee wasn't there at the gates, where a few of their members should have been waiting for latecomers like him. Seeing that fate may had took pity on him, Tsuna scanned the area again for any black _gakurans_ and darker pompadours lurking about, before he finally made a break for the entrance—

—only to be stopped by a metal tonfa that almost collided to his face. Tsuna mentally screamed as the owner slowly walked out from his hiding place behind the gate's walls, an obvious frown shaping his lips.

 _I-I-I'll definitely be bitten to death now!_ A cold sweat trickled down the brunette's temple as the head prefect intensified his glare, the steel tonfa still far too close to his face.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," Hibari finally spoke, and Tsuna immediately froze in fear. "Do you know what time it is _now_?"

"Hiiieee! I-I-I'm sorry, Hibari-san!" Tsuna shrieked and stuttered, one foot stepping back when the prefect's much fiercer glare thawed his fear-frozen body. He raised his arms up defensively in front of his chest. "M-My alarm clock just broke! Kaa-san didn't even wake me! And Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto weren't there to fetch me so I slept longer than usual!"

"All I can hear are pathetic excuses, herbivore," Hibari menacingly said, spinning a tonfa with his right hand as he slowly approached the brunette, the latter stepping back in time with him. "That's why you should just stay quiet and accept your punishment."

Tsuna immediately screamed, throwing his arms higher to shield his face, before he heard the unmistakable sound of a tonfa strike. He instantly flinched then, waited for the unimaginable pain to finally come—but it never did.

 _Huh?_ Very slowly the brunette opened one of his caramel-brown eyes, before both widened in complete surprise when he saw Hibari looking down at him, body posed in what he could only guess was an after-strike.

"I would gladly bite you to death little animal, if you weren't an hour early," Hibari revealed as he stepped back whilst lowering his tonfas.

Tsuna's eyes comically bulged out. "EH!? I-I-I'm an hour early?!" He couldn't believe what Hibari just said, but then again it would explain _everything_ —why his mother didn't wake him, why Lambo and the others weren't eating at the dining table, why Gokudera and Yamamoto weren't waiting for him like usual, and why there were still no students walking to Nami-Chuu.

 _Because it's still too early!_

Though he guessed his alarm clock was really broken since it told him he was an hour late. Tsuna finally let out a very relieved sigh then, before he glanced at Hibari and found the skylark smirking at him.

His eye twitched. _D-Did he just laughed at me?!_

"Yes, I did," Hibari answered, smirk still in place, making Tsuna realize that he just voice that thought out.

The brunette quickly blushed in embarrassment. "T-T-Then why did you have to scare me like that!?" he asked angrily, not knowing why he was being so brave to the scary skylark in front of him. Usually, he would have already shied away and dashed to his classroom—yet, right now, Tsuna could feel this strange courage to actually _demand_ an answer from the raven-haired.

Hibari, on the other hand, widened his smirk at the indignant question. He was really enjoying this. "Isn't it obvious? It's because it's fun scaring herbivores like you."

 _Because it's fun teasing you._

And then—much like two days ago, that odd familiarity made itself known again, though now since Tsuna was in the skylark's presence, he felt it _stronger_. Eyes widening a fraction, he soon realized that the reason for his braveness was directly because of that feeling—like this teasing, this playfulness, this _comfort_ —was something he and Hibari always had.

Tsuna's brows scrunched in deep confusion. He knew that could never be true—but he couldn't also just deny the strange familiarity towards Hibari. Not knowing what to think of anymore of that peculiar feeling, or how to handle it especially in front of the skylark—Tsuna decided to incline his head down and said his leave.

"U-Umm… I-I'll be going then, Hibari-san." He walked as fast as he could then towards the school building, knowing that running would give Hibari an excuse to call him back.

He didn't notice at all the puzzled stare the prefect threw at him.

... .. .

"Tsuna! Oi, Tsunaaa!" Yamamoto called as he waved his hand in front of Tsuna's face. But the brunette still refused to respond, his caramel-brown eyes locked to his desk in a quiet trance. Deciding that they had been ignored long enough, the baseball ace finally slammed his hands loudly on the wooden desk and called out again.

"TUNA!"

Tsuna at last woke up from his reverie. "Did—Did you just call me _Tuna_?"

"Yes," Yamamoto answered as he removed his palms from the desk, before raising his right hand to place it on his nape. He smiled sheepishly. "Well, we were calling you for a while now, but you weren't responding. So I thought to call you something you don't really like… like Tuna!"

Tsuna just stared at the grinning Yamamoto, before he sighed and mumbled an apology.

"Is there anything bothering you, Neo Primo?!" The brunette visibly cringed at the name, even though he already accepted that he would one day be the new Primo. That didn't mean he wanted to be called that now though. He turned to Gokudera then, who had pushed Yamamoto aside in order to slam his own hands on his desk. "Umm… Gokudera-kun, can you please stop calling me that? I already told you Tsuna is fine…"

"No can do, Neo Primo! As your subordinate, I can't just simply call you by your name! Besides, blah blah blah…" Tsuna tuned out Gokudera as he rattled on the etiquette of being a good subordinate, who also glared every now and then at Yamamoto beside him as he was, surely to the silver-haired, the prime example of a bad underling.

The brunette was thankful when Yamamoto finally cut Gokudera off. "So Tsuna, why didn't you tell us that you're going to school early today? Gokudera and I wouldn't mind going an hour early too, you know," the taller male asked, earning a very audible "Tch" from Gokudera, and a low mumble of how the baseball-idiot wouldn't be able to wake up that early.

Yamamoto would have retaliated that he wakes up much earlier for morning practices, but as the easygoing lad that he was, he let it be.

"Ah, well…" It was now Tsuna's turn to smile sheepishly at them. "My alarm clock actually broke. It stopped an hour after class starts, so when I saw it earlier this morning, I actually thought I was late, but then Hibari-san told me that I was actually an hour early."

"That bastard did!?" Gokudera exclaimed, unbelieving. "He didn't hurt you or anything, right, Neo Primo?! If he did, then I'll—"

"Wait, wait, wait Gokudera-kun! Stop! Hibari-san didn't hurt me or anything!" Tsuna stood up and quickly grabbed the silver-haired's arm, who had by then took out his beloved dynamites and was about to walk away to a certain reception room.

"But Neo Primo! Are you sure that fucking bastard didn't do anything?" Gokudera asked as he reluctantly turned back, dynamites still at hand.

"Yes, he didn't—" The brunette abruptly paused when he remembered what happened earlier that morning, which was, in part, the cause of his stupor. He stared at the floor. "Hibari-san… didn't hurt me or anything… he just… _teased_ me…" It sounded incredulous even coming from himself, but that just how unbelievable it was—that the aloof and scariest Disciplinary Chairman of Namimori Middle School just _teased_ him when he thought that he was an hour late, when it was in fact the opposite. From what Tsuna knew of the prefect, the older teen wouldn't usually bother to _joke_ —dare he use that word—with anyone who didn't broke any rules and was promised of immediate pain.

 _And then that feeling again…_ That—familiarity, that curious sensation which told him that Hibari was someone he knew much intimately more than he first thought, making him bolder and more at ease than he could have imagined with the raven-haired—although, Tsuna couldn't even _try_ to guess how he could ever feel that way towards the skylark.

He furrowed his brows in deep thought. Why was he only feeling the familiarity now—and towards Hibari, of all people? Why didn't he felt it earlier, like more than two years ago when he first met him?

 _Why only now?_

 _Ah—that's right. It's because I'm not as scared of him as I was before._ After going through so many things with Hibari, fights mostly—from that skirmish with Mukuro up until the clash with Vindice—Tsuna's fear of the skylark, which was the only thing stopping him from feeling the peculiar intimacy, had significantly lessened. Besides, he couldn't be forever scared of someone he already considered as an irreplaceable part of his Famiglia, his—

"TUNA!"

Tsuna jumped in surprise at the call, belatedly comprehending that he yet again ignored his surroundings and went into a trance.

"Are you sure you're alright, Tsuna-kun?" The brunette turned to his left and blushed when he saw Kyoko, who was standing just behind Yamamoto. He was about to apologize for making them worry when Hana decided to speak first.

"Don't worry too much about him, Kyoko. Sawada is just probably daydreaming of lewd things, that's why he's out of it. Just look at his blush." Hana smirked then as she gave Tsuna a sideway glance, having real fun in teasing him.

The male brunette was now seriously wondering why everyone seemed to love harassing him. "T-That's not true!" he then retaliated, but the darker blush on his cheeks made his words utterly unbelievable.

"Boss…" Tsuna now hesitantly turned to Chrome, who appeared to his right without anyone noticing, her pale fingers enlaced together as she frowned in disapproval. Surprisingly, the pineapple-headed girl decided to live independently from the Kokuyo gang, though she was still part of it, and visited them instead every weekend. Tsuna had a hunch that it must be because of how she wanted to be seen as someone separate from Mukuro, and how the latter wanted her to be an independent warrior—to be an individual who could stand up for herself. Her continued education in Nami-Chuu could also be part of securing her future.

"Ahahaha, anyway, Tsuna!" Yamamoto apologetically grinned, head resting on intertwined fingers. "Actually, today, I won't be able to go home with you since I have baseball practice. But I'll make sure to make it up to you tomorrow!"

"Me too, Neo Primo!" Gokudera exclaimed, his bow forming a perfect ninety-degree angle. "I finally found some evidence that will prove the existence of UMAs! So I'll have to sadly excuse myself today to get that information! But I'll also make sure to make it up to you tomorrow!"

"Really, guys, there's no need." Tsuna waved a hand in dismissal of the thought, and when Gokudera was about to protest, their homeroom teacher finally came, prompting everyone to return to their seats.

... .. .

School ended in a blink of an eye, as Tsuna mostly ignored the teachers in preference to be in a state where he was half-awake and half-asleep, due to his lack of adequate rest for playing video games until late at night and for waking up far too early.

Now walking home by himself, the brunette smiled as he remembered Gokudera profusely apologizing to him again for not being able to walk him home, shaking his head then at the actions of his friend before he lifted his face up, just like he did two days ago, and enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the coolness of the wind, the rare peace of being alone.

"Ah…"

"Pfft."

Tsuna swiftly turned around, and saw four very familiar faces with barely remembered names—his former bullies.

Truthfully, he wasn't bullied anymore, but then there would be scarce occurrences like this—when his former oppressors would gang up on him again, to take some money or to torment him a little, always and expectedly when he was by himself.

"My, my, if it isn't Dame-Tsuna— _alone_! Where're your usual body guards?" One of them darkly jested as they closed in on him, trapping the smaller boy efficiently between them and a wall in the empty alleyway. The boy who spoke smirked at Tsuna who just kept his eyes on the ground, before he slammed a hand on the wall making him jump.

"You know, you've been really, _really_ close to Kyoko-chan lately, and not only to her, but also to that cute eye-patched transfer student. She's even calling you "Boss" of all things!" The boy then inched closer to Tsuna, dark mirth evident in his eyes. "So you know, we all thought that we should teach you some _manners_ on how to deal with them, just like old times, ne?"

Tsuna heard laughter accompanied by several cracking of knuckles next. He closed his eyes tightly, biting down a tired sigh that threatened to escape his lips. He didn't know when, but somehow after they returned from the future, he had lost any real fear he had of people like them—they were _normal_ after all, unlike his Spartan tutor or the marshmallow-addict Byakuran. So Tsuna just stood there, his back against the wall, silently waiting for the usual punches and kicks.

But then—much like earlier that morning, Tsuna suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of a tonfa strike—though now there were several, accompanied by cut-off screams and sounds of bodies dropping to the ground.

When all became quiet, Tsuna slowly opened his eyes, and was half-surprised to see Hibari looking down at four students lying unconsciously on the hard ground, his metal tonfas surprisingly not bloody. The skylark then turned to face him, making Tsuna gasp in fear as the raven-haired quickly approached him before striking him painfully on his left cheek.

" _Itai_!" Tsuna shouted as he landed on the pavement with a loud thud. He was about to cup his now swollen cheek when Hibari roughly grabbed his shirt's collar and growled.

" _Why don't you fight back?_ "

Large caramel-brown eyes stared in shock at the demanding blue-gray ones.

"You're far stronger than them, and yet if I didn't come, you're going to just let them beat you! I demand a reason for that, _Sawada Tsunayoshi_." Hibari tightened his grip on Tsuna's collar then, waiting angrily for the still-shocked brunette's answer.

"T-That's because _I can't_!" Tsuna answered, finally finding his voice. He then grasped Hibari's fist with his right hand, holding it tightly, before looking at him with clear, resolute eyes. "What if I hurt them too much and they ended up in the hospital?! I can't have that, Hibari-san! Besides, I don't want to use my power unless it's for protecting my family!"

The skylark's glare only intensified at the response, before he roughly shoved Tsuna away. The brunette stumbled back from the force, but luckily did not fall again.

"I forgot… how much of a kindhearted fool you are."

Tsuna's eyes widened at those words, and once again he stared in bewilderment at the skylark, who now stood a few feet before him, face turned to the side. Slowly then—memories from more than two years ago emerged from deep in his mind, from the time when Hibari was neither his Guardian nor part of his family, a time when he was just a mere no-good student and the raven-haired a very strict disciplinarian.

The brunette remembered how he would always ran away from the skylark at the very sight of him, how Hibari would save him from his bullies, though sometimes he beat him up too—maybe for being weak, like this time—and how the raven-haired would always try to talk to him every time after he was saved, the words and content of their few exchanges now lost in the sea of his ever-growing memories.

"Sorry," Tsuna suddenly said, making the skylark turn sharply to him. "A-And I think I haven't said this, but t-thank you for saving me, Hibari-san, not only for now, but also for all the times you helped me these past two years."

Blue-gray eyes notably widened at the gratitude, but the brunette failed to see for his own eyes were cast to the ground. When he could only hear silence after his speech, Tsuna looked up again at Hibari, who had turned his head once again to the side, his hands balled into fists, his irises moving as it saw things Tsuna couldn't.

"Hibari-san?" the brunette hesitantly called out, but Hibari wouldn't respond. Tsuna decided to step closer then—when suddenly, for the second time that day, he felt _it_ again—that familiarity, the nostalgic intimacy he could only ever feel towards Hibari.

 _I know him_.

And as Tsuna gazed once more at the still quiet skylark, the older boy's eyes now retaining an emotion he could barely recognize, he couldn't help but feel this pensive sadness—this sudden desire to just reach out and comfort him.

His right hand twitched at the urge. Almost unconsciously, he lifted it up and began to reach out to the skylark, aiming for his hand _,_ his fingertips now mere inches away from the other's skin—when all too suddenly—

Hibari turned around and drifted away.

Tsuna stood there then in shock, at the raven-haired's most likely unintentional turn around and absentminded rejection of his reaching hand. For a moment, he couldn't feel anything, but then—as he watched Hibari walked further and further away from him, he finally felt this light pang in his chest—a whisper, of an old forgotten pain, a reminder of a heart clenching ache—and soon after, a tear finally fell; a single, almost unnoticed tear that stained his right cheek.

It was in sadness and confusion did Tsuna stare at his wet fingertips. His mind began to search then for anything, _anything_ that the skylark had done to make him feel this—this sorrow, this confoundedness, this _longing_ —but found absolutely nothing. It then dawned unto him that he knew nothing about his Cloud—not his age, his family, or his past. Questions began to flood his mind, but one stood out from the rest—

 _Hibari-san…_

And as Tsuna looked up again at the now empty alleyway—Hibari and the unconscious students gone, probably dragged away by the prefect himself—he silently asked the question to the long gone skylark.

 _Just who are you?_


	5. Interval II

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s):** Ep. 15/Ch. 38 (mentioned: Ep. 28/Ch. 19)

 **Author's note:** I'll follow the manga more since it's canon.

... .. .

 **Interval II: That snowy day**

It may have been a Sunday, but Kyoya still went to Nami-Chuu like any other school day—after all, he had work to do for the Disciplinary Committee, and he wasn't really the type to slack off. And as he walked to his destination, his steps careful as to not slip on the cold snow, the raven-haired caught something odd in the periphery of his left eye. He glanced to that direction then, at their school's courtyard, and one dark eyebrow was raised when he saw— _was that a giant turtle?_

Curious and quite befuddled, he went into the courtyard to inspect it, and immediately he noticed _Tsuna_ chasing after a toy car. Well, that explained the colossal reptile—lately, there had been a lot of peculiar things happening around the brunette, from strange should-have-been fatal explosions to weird foreigners with even weirder weapons popping about, like that annoying cow-child with the brightly-colored bazooka that somehow turned you older. Once, there was even a not-really-dead body lying around in Tsuna's room (Kyoya never quite figured out why the infant had lied about that supposed corpse, nevertheless, he played along that time so that the five-year old could owe him one)—so whenever there's something bizarre or unexplainable happening in his beloved town, the raven-haired now always expected the brunette to be the reason behind it, or at the very least, be somehow involved.

Like this time, with that giant turtle. Or, after Tsuna had tripped and allowed it to be picked up by him, the toy car that had orange, _alive_ eyes.

"Hibari-san!"

"What's this?" Kyoya now asked, pseudo-toy car still in his hand. He glanced to his right. "Also, what's with that big turtle?"

Tsuna couldn't really answer the head prefect's questions. "Um, well—" So he decided to respond with a question of his own. "Why are you here on a Sunday?"

The raven-haired suddenly smirked. He decided to humor him. "It was snowing, so I thought I might have a snowball fight."

"You too, Hibari-san?!"

 _Me too?_ "Although, I just throw them at crowds without their consent."

Tsuna instantly paled. _Why hasn't this person been arrested?_

Without warning then—and as if responding to what he just said—the pseudo-toy car Kyoya was holding changed shape—into a green, strangely sweating, maybe-snowball. The smirk on the skylark's face never left. "Meeting you here must be some kind of fate." _Though fate had done this before and screwed with us._ "Perhaps I should make you my target today?"

"Eh—t-that's—" the brunette immediately panicked, "you're going to throw Leon at me?!"

Kyoya didn't reply to that anymore. He approached the brunette, green pseudo-snowball at hand, and at once Tsuna tripped again on himself when he tried to escape, landing butt first on the soft snow.

Frightened caramel-brown eyes stared up at him, and for a second—the raven-haired paused. Though he was already used to Tsuna being scared stiff of him like this, Kyoya still couldn't help but feel a pinprick of hurt whenever he looked at him like that—like he was the most fearsome man in the whole world, though in his beloved Namimori, he maybe was.

He didn't let anything show in his face though. With playful smirk still in place, he finally threw the pseudo-snowball at his target—

—or made it seemed like he did. Kyoya's smirk widened a fraction when Tsuna unconsciously took the nearest thing within his reach, which apparently was a child, to shield himself. "I was going to, but I've got work to do for the Disciplinary Committee." He turned around then, and threw the green snowball to the ground.

"See you later."

Moments afterward, as the head prefect continued his walk to his original destination, he heard a loud explosion most likely from the courtyard. Kyoya frowned. He already punished Tsuna for trespassing with the teasing earlier, but he guessed he had to bite the brunette to death tomorrow for the sure damage to his school—and for the paperworks that would certainly be added to his work.

Kyoya's scowl deepened. He'd make sure to bite Tsuna twice as hard tomorrow morning for _that_.


	6. Chapter 3: Form a bond

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's note: (PLEASE READ)**

 **1\. I'm really, _really_ sorry for not updating for the past two weeks.** Though I already said I was extra busy, I didn't know I'll be _that_ busy that I won't be able to at least update. Well, anyway, the busy hell weeks are finally over, and I have enough free time now to update and reply to your reviews.

 **2\. Updates are still every Wednesdays and Saturdays.** I just want to get this chapter out, since I know you've all been waiting for this, that's why I updated today. So expect Interval III this Saturday, and Chapter 4 the Wednesday of next week.

 **3.** Since 1827 is my OTP, there'll be... teasing starting from this chapter and here on out. But again, just to remind you guys, don't expect any romance to develop. This is pure friendship.

 **4.** Lastly, enjoy reading :)

... .. .

 **Chapter 3: Form a bond**

Tsuna was now starting to regret that he didn't asked Gokudera and Yamamoto to accompany him, and instead lied to the two that he had some important matters to attend to—which was actually true, now that he thought about it, though he also remembered why he didn't want them to know—lest he wanted Gokudera to explode and Yamamoto to laugh it all off, making the silver-haired all the more irritated.

But he still wished that he at least had someone, _anyone_ with him, because Tsuna was utterly and freakishly _nervous_ being by himself on this.

Why was it so hard to see one Hibari Kyoya?

And so—because of his nerves and the maybe-beating he might get just for being there—after taking one hesitant step, Tsuna was now all ready to turn around and walk fruitlessly away when one _very loud_ and very recognizable voice called out to him, making him jump.

"YO, SAWADA!"

"O-O-Onii-san!"

Ryohei couldn't help laughing. "Did I scare you or something?"

"Y-Yeah…" Tsuna answered honestly. "By the way, what are you doing here, Onii-san?" he asked next, curious since the hallway where the reception room was located was rarely used by anyone—except when you're a Disciplinary Committee member or a regular offender—obviously because of the fear everyone had of the head prefect.

 _But Onii-san is one of the few people I know that don't really fear Hibari-san_ , the brunette reminded himself.

"I'm actually on my way back from the boxing club!" Ryohei replied, after flashing his _kouhai_ a toothy grin. "This hallway is actually a shortcut to my classroom, so I always use it whenever I'm late for class when I train for too long, or if I want to have more time for lunch, like this time."

"But how about you, Sawada?" the white-haired then queried, a peculiar gleam shining on his gray eyes, "What are _you_ doing here? Shouldn't you be with Yamamoto and octopus-head since it's lunch time?"

"Ah, well…" Tsuna rubbed the back of his neck unsurely. His nervousness still hadn't quite left him. "I-I'm actually… heading for the reception room…"

Ryohei raised a white brow, though that odd gleam was still on his eyes. "Hmm? Did Hibari called you out or something?"

"Eh—no, it's not like that! I just, umm—" The brunette averted his sight as he urgently thought of what he should say, because truthfully, he still didn't know how he should go on with what he wanted to know from the skylark. "Ah! I heard Hibari-san is swamped with work right now! So I, umm… want to help him out or something…" he finally offered, hoping that the white-haired would take it and wouldn't ask any further.

The boxer would, usually, but Ryohei was extra nosy that day, and so asked the question that Tsuna dreaded. "Why?" The brunette silently cursed. "It's not like I don't get you, but Hibari doesn't really like crowding, remember? So helping him out might only hurt you, Sawada."

"I-I know that. But—" Tsuna paused, scrunched his brows, as the events of yesterday afternoon replayed in his mind. "But… the truth is Onii-san, that's not the only reason why I want to help Hibari-san." He was now fully aware that he actually _knew_ Hibari, though how so, he still had no clue, but that strong feeling that he knew him, coupled with the others things he had felt—the familiarity, the longing, the sadness, the pain—"I actually…"— made Tsuna wanted, _desired_ —"I actually want to know more about Hibari-san, that's why I'm going to the reception room and see him."—to know who Hibari Kyoya was.

Lowering his eyes to his right fist, the brunette now stared at the tightly squeezed digits, at the same fingers that let Hibari escape. Yesterday's events also made him realize how little he knew about his Cloud Guardian—he even knew more things about Mukuro, who he barely saw—fueling his desire to know just who the skylark really was.

After remembering that then and those peculiar feelings, Tsuna's nervousness finally subsided, and together with his newfound resolve, he looked up to Ryohei—and immediately, his Hyper Intuition told him that something was wrong, that something was _greatly_ misunderstood—and he suddenly found himself blushing, especially because of the white-haired's oddly knowing smile. "W-Well, see Onii-san! Like you, Hibari-san's one of the Guardians, a part of the family, and yet I barely know anything about him! Even less than Mukuro, who I rarely see, whereas even if I see Hibari-san almost every day here at school, I—"

"You don't need to explain any further, Sawada!" Ryohei exclaimed as he placed a comforting hand on the still-blushing brunette's shoulder. "I extremely understand your reasons," the older male said next. Tsuna doubted him. "And so, I decided to extremely help you with your quest!"

Tsuna face-palmed promptly. He decided to just ignore his nagging Hyper Intuition and appreciate Ryohei's company. Well, at least he finally had someone to go with him to the reception room—

"YO, HIBARI! SAWADA HERE TOLD ME EARLIER THAT HE WANTS TO EXTREMELY HAVE A DATE WITH YOU!"

—though he immediately regretted, again, of not asking Gokudera and Yamamoto to tag along with him the second after Ryohei roughly opened the sliding door and shouted _that_.

A disgruntled Hibari looked up from the paper in his hand and aptly glared at the loud intruder.

"A _what?_ "

"A date!"

" _Come again?_ "

"I said a date! You know, going to movies and learning more about each other and stuff! A date!"

Tsuna stared in utter disbelief at Ryohei before he finally closed his gaping mouth and pulled the white-haired by the sleeve. 'O-Onii-san! That's not what I meant when I said I want to know about Hibari-san more! It's more like as a family, not as a l-l-lover!' Tsuna whispered desperately as he tried to make Ryohei understand.

The older Sasagawa did, somewhat. Ryohei then smiled apologetically at Hibari, who now had a dark, murderous aura around him. "Sorry, I got that wrong! What I meant was that Sawada actually wants to start a family with you, Hibari! How about a night over then? Ah, but that might be a little dangerous, so maybe I should mandate—"

Ryohei quickly dodged his head to the left as a tonfa swiftly passed by, barely missing him, lodging instead in the wall behind.

" _Herbivores._ " Hibari didn't need to say anything more. The two gulped and quickly ran for their lives.

Kusakabe, who was in the room all along, just sighed and turned to follow his angry boss.

Now somewhere in the school, in a certain second year classroom, a dark-haired girl looked up from her lunch as she heard a loud scream nearing them.

"What is that?" Hana asked as the scream, now accompanied by running footsteps, got closer and closer.

Kyoko suddenly stood up as she recognized the voice. "That sounds like Tsuna-kun!"

The two then quickly went to the door and slid it open—just in time to see a screaming Tsuna and a laughing Ryohei ran away from a very angry Hibari, Kusakabe walking behind them leisurely as if he was taking a stroll.

Kyoko at once giggled while Hana commented about monkeys, before they turned their backs at the usual scene and returned to chatting about the newly-opened cake shop down the street.

... .. .

"Did we lose him?"

"I—I think so," Tsuna answered as he wiped away the sweat sliding down his chin. Still out of breath, he then looked around for any sign of an angry, tonfa-wielding prefect—quite surprised when he saw that they actually ended up running out to the school ground—and sighed in relief shortly after when he found none.

Ryohei grinned at the confirmation. Placing a bandaged hand above his eyes, he stared at the midday sky, his smile widening at the refreshing blueness, before he suddenly bowed down and afterwards laughed aloud. "Really, running around the school like that was extremely fun! Don't you think so too, Sawada?"

"Y-Yeah…" Tsuna smiled awkwardly. He didn't think so too, actually. _Because my definition of fun isn't being chased around by a very angry prefect!_

Since they were still too tired to go back to their classrooms, the two decided to sit underneath the shade of a large tree—and swiftly Tsuna's stomach decided to growl in protest the moment their bottoms touched the ground. Ryohei immediately laughed again as Tsuna covered his empty stomach and blushed in embarrassment, before the white-haired gave his smaller companion a protein bar he took out from his pocket.

"Do you always carry these?" Tsuna asked as he opened the red packet.

"Yeah," Ryohei replied as he opened his, "since I always train my body, I get hungry every now and then. So I make sure I always have some with me whenever those hunger pangs come."

The brunette nodded in understanding as he bit his protein bar, since hunger was one of his constant companions every time he had those hellish trainings with Reborn, before he suddenly choke when he heard Ryohei's next musing.

"So a family with Hibari, huh? I never knew you like him that way, Sawada!"

Tsuna tried his best to stay alive. "Y-You've got it all wrong, Onii-san!" he said after a fitful of coughs. "By family I meant like—like a brother!" Though for him that still didn't felt right. "And definitely not as a h-husband!" _Yeah, absolutely not!_

Ryohei's two eyebrows shot up. "Is that so?" He at last fully understood.

Tsuna sighed and gave his bar another bite. "Hibari-san's just… out of everyone, he's the one I know the least," he said after he swallowed, "and since he's part of our Famiglia, our family, I want to know about him more. I know I can't ask him directly to tell me things about himself, and I don't think the other members of the Disciplinary Committee will tell me anything. So I thought that—maybe by helping around, I can learn more about him, Onii-san." Tsuna then pouted. "But then you had to blurt about me wanting to date him or starting a family with him…"

"Ah… sorry?" Ryohei apologized. Tsuna gave him a you're-already-forgiven smile.

"By the way, Onii-san," the brunette began when his was halfway through his second protein bar. "Do you know anything about Hibari-san that I don't? Since you're a year older and all…"

A lot of things immediately flashed in Ryohei's mind—"Hmm… let me see…"—about kindergarten, about Tsuna's friendship with Hibari, their adventures, their laughters, their frustrations, the sudden goodbye—things that he could never tell Tsuna who still couldn't, and may _never_ remember. "I really don't know what year he's in, but when I entered this school, Hibari's already the Disciplinary chairman, so I guess he's a year older than us…" he then trailed off, quiet for a short while, before flashing Tsuna an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I guess you know about the same as me."

The brunette smiled again at him to show that he was forgiven, before his caramel-brown eyes stared dazedly at the ground as his mouth chewed what's left of his second protein bar.

Ryohei abruptly ruffled Tsuna's hair. "Don't worry, Sawada! Hibari will always be Hibari, so you shouldn't worry too much!"

Tsuna blinked, suddenly awoke from his trance. "What do you mean, Onii-san?"

 _He'll always be by your side._ Ryohei just continued to ruffle Tsuna's gravity-defying hair, earning shouts of protests from the brunette. When he finally let go, the white-haired looked up above him, at the shadowed leaves of the large tree, and almost instantaneously—he recalled the first adventure they had.

"Ne Sawada, what do you think of adventures?"

"Eh?" Tsuna turned to Ryohei, whose gray eyes were still locked on the darkened leaves. "I… I think they're a hassle—but, I guess they can be fun…" he answered as he remembered his much earlier so-called trainings, when it involved not only just him. He smiled. "Yeah, that's about right."

Ryohei too smiled at the answer, before he finally faced Tsuna and ruffled the brunette's hair for one more time.

"Let's have an extreme adventure one day with everyone then, ne?"

... .. .

It was now late in the afternoon, and Tsuna somehow managed to rid himself of his two usual go-home-with companions—by convincing Gokudera to give himself more time with his research on UMAs (to which the silver-head had promised him that he would definitely find a way to communicate with and invite to the Famiglia), and by telling Yamamoto to help out his father at their restaurant, since their team didn't have baseball practice that afternoon. It took a good half-hour to convince Gokudera, Yamamoto less than a minute, before Tsuna could finally stand ten minutes later in front of the reception room's sliding door.

Gripping the straps of his school bag tightly, he stared nervously at the should-have-been-ordinary-but-now-ominous-looking door, the thought of coming there earlier with his Sun Guardian seemed a lot better and _safer_ , somewhat, than facing his Cloud alone this time.

Tsuna immediately shook his head and threw out those thoughts—after all, there was a reason why he had asked Gokudera and Yamamoto to go home without him, a reason why he needed to see Hibari by himself. And as yesterday's events were again recalled, Tsuna finally placed his hand on the handle and slid open the reception room's door.

The setting sun's glare at once blinded him before he could even fully open the entryway. He lifted his arms up then to shield his eyes, stepping next inside, uninvited, before he moved to his left to escape the blinding light. With the sun's rays now gone, Tsuna finally lowered his arm and gasped.

At first he could only see were eyes—narrow blue-gray eyes shining brightly as it glared menacingly at him against the darkness—when it finally registered in his mind that it was actually _Hibari_ before him, seated on his leather chair, the setting sun behind blackening his body, enshrouding the prefect in near-perfect darkness.

As he stood there then, body deathly-still in shock and slight awe, Tsuna was greatly reminded of the fear he had for the skylark, the strange familiarity and nostalgic security he had been feeling the past few days now just mere, almost insignificant dots against his ever growing mural of unease. His fear-laden mind had somehow also perceived that Kusakabe wasn't there—it was just him and the skylark, alone in the sunset-lit room.

"G-G-Good a-afternoon, H-Hibari-san," Tsuna stuttered a greeting, culture and instinct telling him that it should be the first thing he must say.

Hibari, on the other hand, continued to glare at him for a few more seconds before he at last asked—though in Tsuna's ears more like demand—"What are you doing here, little animal?"

Tsuna didn't answer the query immediately. He was distracted—let himself be, as he had now only noticed the weary state his Cloud Guardian was in. He stared then at the slightly disheveled hair, at the clearly tired eyes, at the far too pale complexion—before he finally decided to answer Hibari with a question of his own.

"Are you all right, Hibari-san?"

The skylark only intensified his scowl at the question, and did not respond. Tsuna stayed silent too. Two sets of eyes gazed at each other then—one filled with worry and apprehension, another filled with annoyance and exhaustion.

Hibari was the first to break the contact.

He moved then in his seat, standing up slightly—which made Tsuna stepped back, his palms almost touching the wall, as he remembered that the prefect still had to discipline him for the intrusion earlier with Ryohei. But Hibari did not approach him, he did not even stand up fully—the raven-haired only adjusted his place in his seat, to rest much more comfortably.

"Let me ask again, herbivore," Hibari said, voice laced with irritation. " _What are you doing here?_ "

Tsuna answered his question this time. "I-I heard you were swamped with work, a-and that you don't have enough men to help you, so I-I thought I could come by and l-lend a hand…"

Hibari closed his eyes and sighed in exasperation. "I don't need it," he stated, hand finding its way up to massage the bridge of his nose. It was true that, presently, he didn't have enough men to help him, however, the raven-haired didn't want someone as clumsy as Tsuna to help out—his mistakes and teaching him the correct way of doing things would be too troublesome, too time-consuming. He needed all the time he had right now for his work. "Now leave, or I'll bite you death."

The brunette eyed the tall stacks of documents on Hibari's desk, and weakly retaliated, "B-But, Hibari-san—" before he abruptly stopped, Hibari's deathly glare making him close his mouth shut.

" _Leave._ " Hibari threatened again, expecting Tsuna to finally do what he had said. But Tsuna didn't. Instead, the brunette took a step forward and held his ground—he actually decided to _defy_ him. Hibari raised a-not-so-amused eyebrow.

"Hibari-san," Tsuna began in a much steadier voice, glad that he no longer stuttered, "please, let me help."

Once again, the skylark decided to not respond. He only stared at the brunette in front—at the slight frown his lips formed, at the seriousness his eyes now held—and straight away he felt his hand twitched for his retractable tonfas. But he didn't took them—not yet—for irritated he may be, Hibari wanted to hold out to see where this was going.

"And why do you want to help me so much, little animal?" he decided to ask.

Tsuna was suddenly back to stuttering, but his eyes still held that resolve. "I-I already t-told you, it's b-because—"

"That's not it," Hibari interjected, "that's not the real reason, isn't it?" For somehow, the raven-haired could see _something_ in those clear resolute eyes, something that rekindled a feeling inside of him—one he thought he had lost and now didn't want to entertain.

He had already given up on _that_ possibility a long time ago after all.

Still, he decided to wait for Tsuna's answer. But when the brunette was quiet for far too long for his liking—Hibari finally stood up and took out his tonfas.

"W-Wait, Hibari-san!" Tsuna exclaimed as he held up his hands in front of him, as if the gesture could somehow stop the slowly approaching prefect. "Why can't you just let me help?! Those documents are too many for you alone!"

Hibari ignored him. He only continued his advance, lunged when he was close enough, aiming for Tsuna's left temple—and then stopped, when someone unexpectedly got to him first and kicked Tsuna at the back of his head instead.

"Tsk."

" _Itai!_ Damnit, Reborn, that hurts!" Tsuna shouted as he held the all too familiar pain at the back of his head. He stared angrily at the infant then, now standing atop the coffee table.

Reborn paid no heed to his student. "He's right Hibari," he said as he looked up at the prefect, no longer bothering with greetings and such, "you should let Dame-Tsuna help with your work."

The skylark promptly glared at the infant. " _No way_ ," he finally responded.

"But this could help Tsuna when he becomes the new Primo," Reborn reasoned, "since as a boss, he will be smothered with piles and piles of paperwork, much more than the measly amount you have there." As he finished, the five-year old gestured with his head at the stack of documents on Hibari's table, making the two teens turn to it in reflex; the prefect's face remained annoyed at the sight of his piled-up work, while Tsuna's paled at the thought of how much paperwork he would have in the future if Hibari's was actually considered as freaking _measly_.

"There's also another, _much more_ important thing that you could help Tsuna with, Hibari," Reborn continued, his choice of words catching enough of Hibari's interest for him to listen. The infant grinned at this. "He could definitely learn a thing or two from you about leading, since even though he had already accepted the role of Neo Primo, Tsuna pretty much lacks the confidence in leading his own Famiglia. That's why you should let him help—be close enough to you to let him observe how you do things."

Tsuna blinked in surprise at what Reborn had just said, at what his tutor had seen through him _again_.

Meanwhile, Hibari contemplated the new impromptu proposal from the hitman—although, instead of being silent like last time, this time, the skylark gave Reborn a definite reply. "The answer is still _no_ , infant. Now leave, you two are just wasting my time just by being here."

Reborn lowered his fedora at this reply, hiding his eyes. "I'm not really saying it as a request, Hibari." He tightened his grip on his hat. "I'm saying it more as an _order_."

The skylark raised an eyebrow.

"There's only one thing I want to happen from this, actually," Reborn confessed before he raised his face again, his beady eyes meeting Hibari's curious and at the same time annoyed gaze.

"I want you two to form a bond."

Tsuna immediately voiced his concern. "What do you mean, Reborn?"

The infant tutor finally turned to his student and explained. "Remember how you suggested that the Foundation should replace CEDEF and become the new Vongola's external advisor? Well, I decided to implement that. But," Reborn paused, to give Hibari a sideway glance, "I only have one major concern about that." He then turned his attention back to Tsuna. "What if Hibari suddenly leaves?"

"Can you repeat that, _infant?_ " Hibari demanded, and Reborn subsequently stepped back and spun half-around to face him.

"Answer me, Hibari," the infant ordered, completely ignoring Hibari's question. "Until when will you stay and fight alongside us?" he asked next, "until when will you watch over _him_?"

The skylark intensified his glare at once at the queries.

But Reborn was unaffected by the menacing stare and continued his words, "You are definitely a Cloud—aloof, independent, _drifting_ —someone whom nothing can ever bind. You do things as you like, but, because of that, I'm afraid that you'll just one day leave and never return. That's why I want you two to form a bond—so that no matter how far and how long you may be gone, you'll always return to us, to Tsuna's side."

Hibari furrowed his brows angrily further. "We _don't need_ that so-called bond anymore, infant," he snarled. "And you already know why. The same can be said to those questions, to those stupid concerns of yours—you already know the answer to them. I'm not going to repeat myself."

"Then tell me, Hibari." Once more then, Reborn locked gazes with the skylark. And as he stared straight into those angry blue-gray eyes, the hitman relayed words to the raven-haired, truths that he would rather not tell in front of his student, not yet— _If what you said back then was true, that whatever relationship you had with Tsuna is now long gone, no more bonds to tie you down, then—_

"What's keeping you by Tsuna's side?"


	7. Interval III

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s):** Ch. 86/Ep. 36, Ch. 95/Ep. 42, Ch. 130/Ep. 61, Ch. 132/Ep. 62, Ch. 230/Ep. 141

... .. .

 **Interval III: To the extreme**

It had _hurt_ —when the recently awoken Tsuna had called him by his last name and not by his first. The brunette even added a - _san_ , making the feeling of that sudden distance more painful. From the moment his sister had introduced Tsuna to him, Ryohei had already considered the younger boy as a comrade, a friend, a brother—it may be a bit extreme considering he had just met the brunette, but the then-would-be Sun Guardian had seen something in Tsuna, _felt_ something warm and inviting, that Kyoko, Hana, Takeshi and surely Kyoya, had felt too.

That's why the white-haired was extremely confused when Kyoya suddenly left without _at least_ telling Tsuna, his best friend, beforehand. But he couldn't correct anymore what was already done, and in the wake of Kyoya's sudden leave, Ryohei, as the oldest one left in their merry group of friends, did his utmost best to keep together their rapidly crumbling friendships.

But too many things had barely let him do just that—Tsuna's sudden memory loss and reluctance from them, him being older and a grade older, that incident where Kyoko had been used to lure him, his obsession with boxing—that by the time he was about to step to middle school, Ryohei wasn't shocked anymore—but saddened, yes—that the bonds they had all forged through those extreme adventures and ordinary talks were reduced to an existence that was almost none.

... .. .

Therefore, the very first thing he did when he met Kyoya again in his first year in middle school was to give the raven-haired a _very extreme_ punch.

Though Ryohei had a feeling that Kyoya let the punch land square on his pale face—he deserved it, after all—since the next one was blocked easily by a metal tonfa. The boxer had heard the unmistakable sound of bones cracking at the contact, but honestly didn't care. He was only bent on giving Kyoya a piece of his mind—through his well-trained fists, he might add—for suddenly leaving without telling anyone, save for Tsuna, though even then that didn't really end well, and now coming back without telling anyone, _again_.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE EXTREMELY DONE, HIBARI?!" he demanded, voiced filled with anger while his fists bled freely through the cuts made either from the extreme punches or the broken shards of his bones.

Kyoya chose not to respond, but Ryohei expected that, and so once again they clashed. And when the boxer had taken a good look at Kyoya's face—after a powerful punch had pushed the raven-haired back—at Kyoya's blue-gray eyes, he instantly lost his will to tell him off, although some anger still remained.

"So you'd met Tsuna, huh?"

Ryohei left after that.

... .. .

He barely understood the situation they were in when he was given the half Vongola Sun Ring, or even the role he had as Tsuna's Sun Guardian. Quite frankly, he forgot about it all the next day—

"Please wait, Onii-san! Do you understand what's going on?"

"We're taking on the enemy, right? Looks like there's a lot of tension! I also heard everything that happened yesterday, what happens in ten days, and the Rings."

"Eh? Then you understand—"

"I forgot it all, though!"

—but he at least understood that there were enemies to be defeated, that Tsuna needed his help. And so, with motivation from Kyoko, Ryohei defeated Lussuria with his maximum cannon, and after getting cured by Gokudera, gave the antidote to the Varia member and later saved Chrome and the others with his right fist.

On the other hand, he got extremely confused at first when he was sent to the future. It took Tsuna, Gokudera, and Takeshi five hours for him to finally get the _gist_ of the whole situation—that was, to defeat a man named Byakuran.

The Sun Guardian had been exceptionally worried when one by one, Tsuna and the others started to just _disappear_ —he had searched _all over_ Japan five times just to find them, felt fear for one of the rarest instances of his life, and at one time a thought passed by if that was what Tsuna had felt during those times when he had thought he didn't have a single friend, before Reborn came.

Ryohei didn't want Tsuna to feel that anymore, didn't want _anyone_ to ever feel that way—the dark emotion of being by oneself.

That was why from then on he always pestered Kyoya to join them, always made sure that whatever they all did was to the extreme and lively—that everything was memorable.

Because, just like the star that brightened the place, Ryohei finally understood his role as the Sun and took it upon himself to destroy any darkness afflicting his Famiglia. He also took it upon himself to continually hope—which everyone had already lost—that all of their friendships from long ago would be restored, that Tsuna would eventually remember.

And until that day came, he would be the brightest Sun anyone had seen, illuminating everything, defending everyone—protecting their smiles, to the extreme.


	8. Chapter 4: The distance between them

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

... .. .

 **Chapter 4: The distance between them**

As luck would have it, even though the sadistic tutor Reborn had finally returned from his mysterious one-man expedition, Tsuna wasn't woken up at four a.m. that morning to be trained, however, on that day, his alarm clock decided to screw with him again and made him go to school more than an hour too early.

He was absolutely sure that a Reborn missing on the white hammock was the cause of his messed up morning.

Now yawning loudly from the lack of sufficient sleep, Tsuna first looked around the empty room—it was quite nice, he admitted, when their usually rowdy classroom was peaceful like this—before he turned his gaze at the scenery outside the window, down to the opened gates of Nami-Chuu.

Resting his chin on his propped arm, he observed how there were scarcely any students entering the school so early in the day—maybe only those who had morning practice or special agendas, Tsuna deducted. Even the Disciplinary Committee only stationed a few men when the morning was still too fresh, and on that day there were only two.

 _And none of them is Hibari-san._ Unlike the other day, Hibari wasn't the one who greeted him earlier when he frantically came to school. And even after half an hour had already passed since Tsuna came, there was still no sign of the head prefect.

 _He might be busy with some other things,_ the brunette then reasoned. It wasn't that unusual, and Tsuna was even thankful that he still hadn't seen Hibari.

Because in all honesty, after what had happened yesterday afternoon in the reception room, the next Vongola Primo didn't know how to face his Cloud Guardian.

" _What's keeping you by Tsuna's side?"_

The brunette's brows immediately scrunched together in deep thought. That question alone replayed in his mind over and over again before he slept last night— _what did Reborn meant by that?_ Did he meant it as him being the Vongola boss, thus, in a way, representing the whole Vongola, or did the hitman meant it as him as a person, an individual?

 _But, more importantly, what is making Hibari-san stay with us for this long?_

Tsuna had thought long and hard about it, and at first he could only come up with reasons that _should_ make the skylark leave—Hibari hated crowds to a terrifying degree, and so staying with them meant tolerating more than a few occasions his dislike for a large number of people gathered closely together. The brunette also knew that Hibari always liked to do what he pleased, but being part of Vongola also promised of times where the Cloud needed to follow his Sky against his will. Surely too, if he still stayed with them, the time would come when Hibari needed to leave his beloved Namimori for an unknown country like Italy.

So then, even with the certain knowledge of those definite sacrifices, why was Hibari still with them?

Was it the fights? Hibari did love battling strong people—but then he could have gone to Dino for that. As a Mafia boss, the blonde knew a lot of strong people that could challenge Hibari, and as clumsy as his self-proclaimed older brother was, Dino was still undeniably strong, and thus could also give Hibari a satisfying fight. Going to the blonde also entail that Hibari didn't have to tie himself down to Vongola, to a Famiglia.

There was another possibility that had come to mind; most of the Vongola Guardians where students of his school, and it was possible that Hibari was sticking with them since, as the head Disciplinarian, he saw it as his duty to watch over them. He went to the Inheritance Ceremony after all since a student, Yamamoto, was attacked on their school grounds—and found it his responsibility to punish the culprit.

Another reason could be because he still wanted to fight Mukuro—but, didn't he already settle his revenge with the blue-haired shortly after he was released? _Had he?_

" _Mou_ , why do the questions only keep on increasing?!" Tsuna exclaimed as he ruffled his hair in frustration, the act also an attempt to clear up his mind. He next laid his arms vertically on the wooden desk, suddenly feeling tired, and rested his chin on the hard surface.

Nothing did was answered yesterday afternoon—Hibari never responded to Reborn's query, and so in opposition to his silence, the infant gave an ultimatum—

" _If you're not going to answer that, then I suggest you follow my order," Reborn said as he tipped his fedora down, his sullen eyes hidden, his stern voice laced with unchallenged authority._

" _Form a bond."_

Tsuna wasn't really against Reborn's idea—or order, in this case—since aside from his justifiable reasons for the decree, the enforced—arrangement, would also make it easier for him to learn more about his Guardian. He would also like to know, if he could, the reason why Hibari was still with them.

However, the look he saw the raven-haired wore when he had heard the order told him that he was a hundred percent averse to it.

Tsuna now let out a long sigh, and subsequently wondered how he would explain the arrangement to his overly devoted right-hand man.

... .. .

"WHAT?! Why does Neo Primo have to work for that—that— _that fucking bastard_?!" Gokudera spat when Tsuna announced his new after school activity with Hibari. Yamamoto was unsurprisingly alright with it, while Gokudera predictably exploded, and Tsuna tried his best to quiet his Storm.

"Please, Gokudera-kun, calm down!" Tsuna placated. "Besides, I'm not working for him, I'm just helping out—wait, maybe for Hibari-san it is working—but it's not like it's for everyday!" he quickly said when Gokudera took out his dynamites. "It's only for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays! So we can still go home together when I'm not wor—helping him out!" Though Tsuna knew the reason why Reborn didn't made it every day was so that he, _the freaking demon incarnate_ , could still train him. _Damn._

"Ahahaha, see Gokudera? You shouldn't worry too much about this!" Yamamoto said as he gave the silver-haired's shoulder a reassuring pat. Gokudera slapped it away. "Tsuna is just helping Hibari out, and he'll still be able to go home with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays!"

"Just shut up, you baseball-idiot!" Yamamoto laughed again at the familiar insult, which made Gokudera click his tongue. The Storm Guardian then faced his Sky again, anger and worry both etched on his face. "Even if that's so, do you really have to do this, Neo Primo?" Gokudera desperately asked as he grabbed—quite painfully, if Tsuna had to say—the brunette's shoulders. "Even if Reborn-san was the one who arranged it, I really can't agree to this!"

Tsuna breathed out a tired sigh. "Look, Gokudera-kun," he began, staring straight into his right-hand man's green eyes, "Reborn said I needed to form some kind of bond with Hibari-san not only because he might suddenly—leave one day if I don't, but also because he's the Guardian that's the farthest away from me." He then paused, redirected his eyes to the floor. "This… bonding may be abrupt and forced, but I really think Hibari-san and I need this. And besides, this way," he now locked gazes again with disbelieving ones, "I can learn more about him since out of all of you, he's the one I know the least."

"B-But—Neo Primo—"

"I'm sorry, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna said firmly as he gently removed the silver-haired's hands from his shoulders, "but I really need to go now. Hibari-san will definitely bite me to death if I'm late." And with one last apologetic smile, he left.

"Tch!" A good ten seconds after Tsuna had left, Gokudera finally recovered from his shock and gave the closed sliding door an angry glare. "That bastard will definitely work Neo Primo to death! Or worse, use him like some kind of human punching bag!"

"Ahahaha, though for Hibari, it would be more like a tonfa striking bag!" The Storm immediately snapped angrily at the Rain. "Maa, maa, like what I said earlier, you shouldn't worry too much about this, Gokudera. Tsuna's not that weak, and besides, Hibari will never do that to him."

"How can you be so sure?!" Gokudera shouted next. "That bastard is nothing but a bloodthirsty freak! He will definitely hurt Neo Primo!"

"He won't." All too suddenly, the laughter in Yamamoto's eyes was replaced by seriousness— _and was that sadness?_ —though his smile still remained. "Especially if it's Tsuna. Hibari will never hurt him, unless of course if he found it necessary or Tsuna made him angry."

Gokudera narrowed his eyes. "Hmph," was all he responded then, hands in pockets, hardly convinced.

And as he watched Yamamoto with the corner of his eye, the taller male pushing books and notebooks in his body bag, a suspicion was raised within the silver-haired—a concealed distrust he had been feeling every now and then not only on the character of the baseball-idiot—but also on the lawn-head's, his sister's, Kurokawa's, and especially on the bastard Hibari's.

Ever since he had sworn his loyalty to Tsuna, Gokudera had been observing the people around his beloved boss. He had taken it as his duty as Tsuna's right-hand man, as his most devoted subordinate, to protect him from any kind of threat—and from his past, he knew the most dangerous and worst kind were people.

But, as the months passed by, Gokudera had learned to trust the people close to his boss, to finally open up to the Famiglia, even for just a bit. The people around Tsuna were honestly good people, that was why as time went on he got confused at the suspicion, had thought he might just be paranoid, and constantly wondered what those four could be hiding.

He knew he was the only one who had this hidden distrust, since he was regularly monitoring Tsuna's welfare, although Reborn, as a fellow hitman and as his boss's tutor, could have noticed too. And just like how Reborn wasn't doing anything about it, just like all those times he had felt it before, Gokudera decided not to dwell or ask about his suspicion. He had sensed that whatever they might be keeping wasn't a threat to Tsuna's life. He had also considered the possibility that they were hiding it—whatever it was they were—for Tsuna's _own good_.

Although, definitely, Gokudera would determine the truth about this one day, for now, he'll let it be.

... .. .

"Herbivore." Tsuna immediately straightened up at the call. " _What are these?_ "

Timidly, the brunette turned his head to face the ever-glaring Hibari, before his caramel-brown eyes landed at the few pieces of paper held angrily by the prefect's left hand. He stuttered an answer. "T-The documents y-you told me t-to sort out, H-Hibari-san."

"What did I told you to take and to throw?"

Tsuna gulped and tried his best not to stammer this time. "H-Hibari-san told me to k-keep the ones that are at least r-reasonable, and t-to throw away the ones that are just r-r-ridiculous."

"And do you think a request to let the girls wear shorter skirts is within reason, _Sawada Tsunayoshi_? I never thought you were such a pervert."

 _Of course not!_ Tsuna wanted to say but made the choice to not speak, and just shake his head in disagreement. It had only been ten minutes since he gave Hibari the first batch of documents he had sorted for a good hour, and yet the prefect immediately caught a mistake.

It had really surprised him that Hibari actually gave him a serious, though admittedly easy, job of sifting the requests made by the students to the Committee—and not just something as trivial as making the raven-haired some green tea. However, because of the responsibility he was suddenly given, and the nervousness he was feeling for being in the same room as the fearsome Hibari Kyoya, Tsuna was certain that a few ridiculous documents did pass him, but the consequences of making such a blunder now terrified him.

"S-S-Sorry…" he decided to squeak. Hibari then stood up, and Tsuna watched in dread and horror as the skylark approached him slowly, rejected documents still at hand—and then passed him by.

Hibari threw the papers into the trash bin.

"E-Eh?"

"What?" the raven-haired asked as he once again walked pass the now stunned Tsuna, giving the brunette an annoyed glance as he did so, before he returned to his leather seat and examined the other documents.

"Umm, well…" Tsuna instinctively knew that he will regret this, but still he asked, "a-aren't you going to bite me death?"

Hibari paused mid-signature and sighed, massaging then the bridge of his nose to at least stall the oncoming headache. "I'm not _that_ strict to punish you for something so small, herbivore. It's your first time doing this, so it's understandable. And as long as you learn from your mistake, you shouldn't worry too much about me biting you to death."

Tsuna's mouth was now agape.

Hibari's eye twitched at the look. "What now?"

"A-Ah, w-well," Tsuna stuttered at the question. "I just never thought that H-Hibari-san could be so…" he trailed off, not wanting to continue.

" 'so…' what, Sawada?" Hibari asked, daring him to.

The brunette looked away at the clearly irked eyes and whispered, '…r-reasonable'.

As expected, he was bitten to death shortly after that.

... .. .

By the third day of their enforced arrangement, the nervousness Tsuna had felt for the first two had all disappeared, though now it was replaced by the feeling of uneasiness.

Silence always reigned over them as they work, as words were only spoken when needed—and somehow, this unstated agreement of theirs made everything difficult for the brunette. Far from the comfortable quietness he had with the future version of his Cloud, the times Tsuna was now having with the younger Hibari was only filled with discomfort. And unlike in the future, the two were always left alone; because although Kusakabe was always there whenever he arrived, for the past three days of the arrangement, the second-in-command never failed to leave quickly after, as some of Hibari's duties were transferred to him while the head prefect took care of the oddly large amount of paperwork.

Tsuna was beginning to question too if a bond between him and Hibari could even be formed. Countless of times he had thought of starting a conversation, to make a connection and ease the suffocating silence; but the idea could never be fulfilled, as he did not know what to even talk about.

And now, coming back to the present, almost secretively, the Sky gazed at his Cloud.

Ironically enough, even if Hibari was so close to him now—just a few steps and he could already touch the skylark—Tsuna never felt so far away from him, so _distant_ , that by this time he was almost convinced that nothing could ever develop from this arrangement.

 _Should I… quit then?_

"…yes, I'll be there in ten minutes." Tsuna quickly snapped out from his thoughts as Hibari stood up from his chair. Before he could stop himself, a question hastily made its way out of his lips.

"Where are you going, Hibari-san?" The query was just out of mere curiosity, since Tsuna never saw Hibari leave the reception room whenever he's helping, this was the first, and yet—the skylark did not spare him a scowl, a glare, or even a glance. Hibari only continued to walk towards the exit, and only when a hand was rested on the frame of the open doors, did the prefect answered him—

"It's none of your business."

"C-Can't you at least tell me w-what you're going to do?" the brunette demanded as he stood up. His tone may be weak, but Tsuna had decided that he wouldn't quit, that he would stubbornly stay and closed the distance. _And the first step for that is communication._

He then watched carefully as Hibari slowly turned around. And after a few, quick, long strides—the skylark was suddenly in front of him, a tonfa placed against his neck, the metal cold against his bare skin.

Tsuna shivered at the glare Hibari was giving him. "Tell me, herbivore," the raven-haired began, "why are you keeping with this stupid arrangement?" Hibari asked, before pressing the tonfa harder against Tsuna's neck, almost choking him.

"Don't you fear me?"

Caramel-brown eyes widened a fraction at the question. "I-I—" For a good moment, Tsuna was at a loss for words. Hibari narrowed his eyes at this, and when Tsuna still couldn't answer for a few more seconds, he turned around and walked towards the still-opened doors of the reception room.

The brunette swiftly recalled the afternoon when Hibari had drifted away from him. "Wait, Hibari-san!" he then shouted, and thankfully, the prefect stopped again, just a foot from the door, but he didn't faced him anymore.

Though it seemed it wasn't much of a concern a week ago compared to the question of Hibari's reason for staying, Tsuna wanted to be certain of one thing, about a worry that was getting to him more than he thought it would. "Ne Hibari-san, you—you wouldn't leave us suddenly, right?"

Hibari was completely taken aback by the off-topic question. And maybe, because of that, he didn't respond. He only treaded the last three steps to the outside, before he slid close the door behind him, leaving Tsuna and his concern alone.

... .. .

The click-clack of indoor shoes resounded in the empty hallway as the raven-haired walked in a steady and assertive pace, on his way back to his office, the fading afternoon sunlight bathing him with an orange glow as he passed by the clear glass windows.

A scowl could be seen on his face.

Hibari hated it—despised the arrangement the infant had coerced them in. He and Tsuna no longer needed to create any kind of bond, because he would _never_ leave his Sky's side.

So wasn't that enough? Didn't he already make that clear to the infant? Why did the five-year old have to even make this ridiculous setup? And if the Foundation did end up as the new external advisor to the Vongola, he and Tsuna didn't need any kind of special connection—just them being mere acquaintances, two people who would occasionally fight together, was enough.

Did the infant, perhaps, not believe him?

 _No_ —Hibari didn't have a reason to lie, and Reborn knew that. Then, was the infant still curious about their past relationship? And hoped to gain, somehow, an insight from the arrangement?

Hibari narrowed his eyes. If that was it, then he would never find his answer. No one who knew would also ever talk about what had happened back then—not only because it hurt to recall, but also because talking about it would not change anything.

 _Tsunayoshi won't still be able to remember._

The raven-haired finally arrived in front of the reception room's door, but made no move to open it. He just stood there instead, blue-gray eyes glaring at the unopened entrance.

He—had long given up on making Tsuna remember their past, long given up on becoming his friend again. After all, back then, the brunette was too afraid of him, run at mere _sight_ of him that they couldn't even talk. He wasn't sure about now, since Tsuna couldn't answer him earlier, though he guessed that that fear had lessened to an extent. But even if it was diminished to a great degree, Hibari highly doubted that he and Tsuna could even create a connection, what with the strained atmosphere between them now.

However, the infant being the infant, Hibari knew Reborn would do anything—bribe them or threaten them—to make him and Tsuna agree to the arrangement. That's why he decided to play along for now. Having a child follow you around would be too annoying after all.

A tired sigh now escaped Hibari's lips. Thoughts of wanting to end this day and just go home for a well-deserved rest entered his mind as he finally slid open the door—when he abruptly paused, surprised at what he saw.

There standing beside his desk was Tsuna, the corner of his lips up in a warm smile, while the tips of his fingers caressed Hibird who was sleeping soundly on that soft, auburn hair.

He was immediately reminded of the little brown bird they once cared for.

"Herbivore." Tsuna quickly stopped his petting before he turned to him. "I thought you're scared of little creatures?" Hibari asked as nonchalantly as he could, walking then towards the brunette after he closed the door.

A small blush crept to Tsuna's cheeks in embarrassment, his apprehension to the prefect seemingly gone. "D-Did Reborn told you that?"

"He did," Hibari lied. Tsuna sighed.

"I'm not scared of _everything_ that's small." The brunette began to pet the sleeping Hibird once more, that strange familiarity making him unafraid of the skylark again. "Chihuahuas, bats, and cockroaches are honestly terrifying to me but," Tsuna paused as a thoughtful look settled on his face, "I don't know why, but little birds like Hibird never scared me. I… somehow have a special fondness for them."

At once, Hibari was struck with melancholy—at the fact that Tsuna could not even recall Isamu—and then guilt, herbivorous as it was, because he was the reason why, the trigger, for Tsuna's mind to forget everything.

Hibari's blue-gray eyes narrowed softly. He… didn't really like this—this arrangement Reborn had forced them in. He didn't want to create a new bond simply because they no longer needed it. He didn't even know if Tsuna wanted it—a connection with _him_.

But then, seeing that warm smile again, that smile that used to be directed at him and he had terribly missed—Hibari couldn't admit that he didn't want to go back to how they once were.

... .. .

"So how was your time with Hibari today, Tsuna?" The person in question redirected his gaze from his homework to Reborn. The same query was asked to him on the first day of the arrangement—progress report, the infant had explained, and Tsuna knew then the same thing would be ask every time on the days he had helped Hibari out.

He turned back to his homework. "The same as always…" he answered, his voice a touch wistful. Reborn noticed it. He then jumped to Tsuna's low table, effectively securing his student's attention to him, and asked, "Are you only doing this because I ordered you to?"

Tsuna blinked at the question. "What—no, of course not—" he quickly answered after he recovered from his surprise, "I'm doing this because I want to."

"Good." Reborn settled down on the table, his legs crossed. "That explains why you didn't complain when I told you two to form a bond." He next looked up to Tsuna. "Though now I'm wondering why you're willingly doing this, forming a close connection with a person you're scared of. Care to tell me?"

"Well…" Tsuna began, gripping his mechanical pencil a little tighter, wondering if he should tell about the odd familiarity and the nostalgic security he could only feel towards Hibari, "I'm not really that scared of Hibari-san anymore. And just like you said, he's the Guardian that's the farthest away from me, so I think we really need this. Besides, since, out of everyone, he's the one I know the least, I want to use this arrangement to learn about him more." He had decided not to.

Tsuna's answer made Reborn smile. "What kind of bond then do you want to form with Hibari?" he asked.

At the question, the brunette suddenly recalled the distance he had felt earlier that afternoon; the doubt that he and Hibari could even form a connection, and then the resolve of doing whatever it took to create that bond.

He finally gave Reborn a smile.

"I want to be his friend."


	9. Interval IV

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s):** Ep.17/Ch. 29

 **Author's note:**

 **1.** Since my wisdom tooth will be pulled out this coming Wednesday (ouch), I _might_ not be able to update. So if chapter 5 isn't out on Wednesday, expect it on either Thursday or Friday.

 **2.** For this interval, I followed the anime version more.

 **3.** Lastly, there are no typos in this ;)

... .. .

 **Interval IV: After the dream**

Well, this was surprising.

Kyoya caught a cold—it was rare now for him to, honestly, since he always made sure he was in top form; and so, out of caution, the prefect admitted himself to Namimori Hospital.

'Geez, that Sawada kid is nothing but trouble!'

Kyoya looked up from the small blue book he was reading. He wasn't sure if he had heard the red-headed nurse, who was currently changing the dying flowers in his vase with fresh red and yellow roses (he mildly wondered who gave him that), correctly—if she had really mentioned Tsuna's last name. Thus, he decided to eavesdrop.

'Not only did he bring people that would seduce nurses, but he also kept on disturbing other patients!' the nurse whisper-ranted on, 'I need to talk to the Director and tell him that that Sawada should be thrown out!'

" _Nurse_ ," Kyoya suddenly called, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice. Nervously, the red-headed woman turned around and faced him.

"S-Sorry, Hibari-san, did I disturb you?"

Kyoya ignored her question. "Bring the Sawada kid you're talking about here. I'm bored right now since my playmates were too weak to keep up with our little game." He gestured with his head then at two other patients at the corner of the room, currently unconscious because of the aforementioned game. The anxious nurse gulped at the sight.

The skylark smirked at that. "And hearing how rowdy that Sawada kid is from you, he might not only ease my boredom, but I could discipline him for you with the game. So I want you to bring him here, _now_."

"Y-Y-Yes, Hibari-san!" And with that, the nurse immediately left.

... .. .

Minutes later, Kyoya heard two knocks on his door.

"Excuse me."

He couldn't help but smile at the sound of the familiar voice. It had really been a while since they last faced each other. "Ya."

Although for Tsuna, the skylark's smile looked more like a smirk. He instantly paled at the sight of their school's head prefect. "Hibari-san?! It can't be! Why are you in the hospital?!"

"I caught a little cold," Kyoya answered. "And although I'm mostly better now, I thought I'd be cautious and stay under medical care."

"I-I see," Tsuna said, still a little pale. He then noticed something at the corner of his right eye. "Wh—What happened here?!" He gaped at the sight of the clearly beaten-up and unconscious patients in front of the brown cabinet, afraid now if he had the same fate as the two.

Kyoya turned to where the brunette was looking. "Them?" he asked nonchalantly. The raven-haired actually wanted to ask first how Tsuna got so heavily bandaged, though at the thought of a fedora-wearing infant, he didn't feel the need to ask anymore.

"We were playing a game to kill time, but they were so weak," he explained. He then faced Tsuna, the latter's face much paler than before, making him smirk. "I'm having those who share this room with me participate in a game. The rules are simple: if you make any noises while I'm sleeping," Kyoya swiftly swished out his tonfa, "I'll bite you to death." He needed to take as much rest as he could to get better after all; and even if it was an injured Tsuna playing the game, Kyoya wouldn't think twice of punishing him. The brunette wasn't immune to his bites.

 _How one-sided! How can this even happen in a hospital?!_ Tsuna thought in despair. _I can't stay in this room! I'm better off at home than here!_ "Um, I-I feel much better now, so I'll leave the hospital," he lied in an attempt to escape the prefect's game.

Luck wasn't with him though. "You can't, without permission from a doctor." Tsuna was then knocked down to the floor by someone from behind, most probably by the one who spoke.

"Ya, Director," the skylark greeted.

 _Wait—_ "Director?!" Tsuna turned his head to see the older, moustached man in the white coat. _As in, Director of this hospital?!_

Everyone ignored the injured Tuna on the floor. "How are things?" Kyoya asked next.

"Ah—" The Director bowed to the skylark first before answering. "It's because of Hibari-kun that we can run the hospital peacefully."

Tsuna turned to Kyoya in shock. _Does Hibari-san have control over the hospital too?!_

"So feel free to ask for anything while you're staying here," the Director continued as he straightened up. "We'll take care of it promptly."

"I'm just going to get some sleep." Kyoya yawned. He then settled himself comfortably on the white hospital bed, and closed his eyes.

The Director bowed to him for the last time—"In that case, excuse me."—and left, leaving Tsuna alone with Kyoya, the unconscious patients already brought out by the nurses who were with the Director earlier.

"Just to let you know, even the sound of a leaf falling will wake me up," the prefect warned before he finally went to sleep.

The game had begun.

Tsuna couldn't believe his luck.

... .. .

... .. .

Kyoya had a dream.

It was a dream of the past—of the wonderful times with his deceased father, the unforgettable moments with his once best friend, the blazing adventures with the still-annoying herbivores.

It was a reminder of the things he had lost, and could never hope to regain again.

At the sound of a single fallen petal, Kyoya woke up from the dream—to his reality. He opened his blue-gray eyes then, slid his irises to the left, and saw Tsuna cowering by the door, clearly afraid of the consequences of waking him.

Almost leisurely he got up from his bed and took out his tonfas. He didn't felt particularly happy about biting the brunette to death, especially not after that dream, but the prefect would still abide by the rules of his game and do what he had said he would.

This was his reality now after all, and he knew it would be best to place aside those long-gone dreams.


	10. Chapter 5: Routine

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's note/rant:** I'm seriously sorry for not updating for the last two weeks, _again_. Life had seriously been a _bitch_ lately. You can say I was in a crossroad - for the past two weeks (and the week before those, actually) I was mulling over on what road I should take, and because of that, I was in a slump, and not only in the writing area.

I haven't made a solid decision yet, but I have a vague understanding now of what I want to do. And though I'm still not fully out of my slump, I can at least write properly now.

So, anyway, thanks for waiting for this chapter!

 **\- other notes:**

 **1.** This chapter may be a bit boring, since nothing much happens, and is more info-oriented. But it is needed, so I don't really have much of a choice.

 **2.** Interval V will be up on Saturday.

... .. .

 **Chapter 5: Routine**

Despite the fact that Tsuna had resolutely told his tutor that he wanted to be Hibari's friend, it was far too easier said than done. Not only because it was _the_ Hibari Kyoya he wanted to form a relationship of mutual caring and trust with (the person himself was already a challenge), but also because the skylark was being more distant than usual. Tsuna had sensed that it was only slightly intentional though—since the day Reborn had ordered them to form a bond, he had noticed that the head prefect had a lot of work—and most of them where paperwork—to do, giving Hibari almost no time to pay any attention to him, and that having that large amount was very uncommon, making Tsuna wonder if there was something else the raven-haired was occupied with, other than the school and Namimori.

Looking up now to the early morning sky on his walk to school, Gokudera and Yamamoto's usual one-sided squabble just a buzz to his ears, Tsuna could somehow recall that something like this had happened before—about him determinedly promising that he'd complete an almost impossible task—and almost immediately, he remembered his very first errand, that time when he got lost. Terribly.

He seriously didn't want to fail miserably like that time.

 _Hmmm… how did I bought those carrots and got home safely again?_ Tsuna tilt his head and crossed his arms as he tried to remember the past, but not long after he did, he put his hands down and gave up. He couldn't remember anymore what had happened back then, and so he redirected his thoughts back to his still non-existent friendship with Hibari.

Two weeks had already passed since he had told Reborn the kind of bond he wanted to form with his Cloud. Two weeks of no progress—and though part of it was due to the raven-haired's aloofness, the other reason for the lack of development was because Tsuna honestly didn't know how to become friends with Hibari—or with anyone, for that matter.

Gokudera and the others were the first to approach him, while his other alliances just one day came to be. Though he guessed how he formed his friendship with Enma was different, he couldn't really use that as a reference. He and the red-head were too alike after all—both bosses of a Mafia family, both formerly bullied, and both caring deeply for their Famiglia—very much different from Hibari, who he barely had any similarities to begin with.

Tsuna let out a soft sigh and stared up again at the clouds in the sky. With a thoughtful face, he wondered how it all came to this—to him wanting to be friends with the most violent person he knew. Surely, if Reborn hadn't made that arrangement, he wouldn't be all-determined to be the terrifying skylark's friend?

 _Ah, wait, that's not true—_ surprisingly, Tsuna only now recalled the feelings that had commenced everything—the familiarity and the nostalgic security he now always associated with Hibari. He couldn't believe he had forgotten about them, even if it's just for a short while, though the reason could be because he spent so much time now with Hibari that the feelings became so common and natural for him to sense that he didn't really noticed them much anymore.

Placing aside the habituation, Tsuna knew that even without Reborn's order, he would had inevitably desire a better relationship with his Cloud. Not only because of those peculiar feelings, but also due to the fact that he already considered Hibari as part of his Famiglia, his family, that a relationship of mere acquaintances was just out of the question. And even if those feelings, which made him curious of his Cloud in the first place, didn't exist, Tsuna was well aware that he would eventually want to know more about the man himself—his history, his past, who he was—and be friends with him.

Tsuna had not forgotten his self-appointed mission of knowing more about the skylark. And so on the week after he had informed his tutor about the bond he wanted to make with Hibari, he had tried to learn more about the raven-haired by asking around first.

He had actually wanted to ask the person himself, but since the head prefect was too busy with the paperwork, and also because Tsuna was far too certain that a death glare would be Hibari's answer to his nosy questions, he went and ask the other Committee members—but was incessantly ignored. Before those Committee members though, the brunette had preferred to ask Kusakabe, considering he was the closest person to Hibari, and that he wouldn't ignored him. But sadly, he couldn't get a hold of the Vice Chairman due to the latter's new busy schedule.

Thus, with his plan of asking around revealed utterly fruitless, on the week after, Tsuna had decided to observe Hibari instead.

One of the things he had observed about the skylark was that the latter always came to school _really_ early—well, it wasn't a surprise at all for Tsuna, considering Hibari was part of the Disciplinary Committee, and its Chairman to boot, so he somewhat expected that the prefect came to school early in order to check the decency of every single student's uniform.

But what did surprised Tsuna though, was the fact that Hibari almost always go home much, much later than he first thought; on the days he ended up helping until late at night, he always saw the raven-haired still working on some documents whenever he took his leave. This made Tsuna wonder at times if Hibari actually secretly lived in the school.

(Which consequently made him concerned at the idea being _feasible._ )

Another thing the brunette had noted was that Hibari didn't seem to attend any classes, since he far too often caught sight of his Cloud patrolling or disciplining students whenever his class changed rooms or whenever he went to the restroom.

He pondered then if not attending any classes was some kind of special privilege for the Disciplinary Committee, since the other members didn't seem to go to class as well, or they just don't go to any classes since they _were_ delinquents _. But_ —as Tsuna had mulled over it more— _since they're part of the Disciplinary Committee, shouldn't they set themselves as an example and be model students? Ah, but if they do, then there'll be less time for patrols during classes, which may make students more confident to cut class or ditch school all together…_

…

Tsuna had decided then not to think about that anymore.

It was also a big mystery what year Hibari was in, though Tsuna was quite certain that the skylark should've already graduated, since when he had asked that one time why Hibari wasn't in high school yet, the prefect only mysteriously told him that he could choose any year he wanted to be in.

Hibari's age too, not to mention his birthday, was still a secret to him. Tsuna was sure the other Disciplinary Committee members knew, they almost worship Hibari after all, though he also knew they would never tell him. He would have to find it out himself.

Lunchtime, on the other hand, was when Hibari always chose to nap on the school's flat roof. Over time since the battle with Daemon Spade ended, Tsuna, together with Gokudera and Yamamoto—and at times including Ryohei, Kyoko, even Hana, and later Chrome—had somehow made a peace treaty with the sleeping skylark whenever they ate their lunch on the roof. They always made sure not to be too loud (which was only a real challenge when Ryohei was with them), lest they wake the would-be irritated prefect and be bitten shortly to death.

Afternoons were spent on rounds, Tsuna had observed. He could always catch a glimpse of the raven-haired walking on the school ground, which must be his usual patrol route. The rounds and disciplining then would always end sometime before the brunette arrived at the reception room, seeing that Hibari was always there already tackling documents whenever he came.

Now, other than Hibari's ambidexterity—which Tsuna had only recently confirmed when the prefect had signed a document with his left hand while typing a message on his phone with his right—and his penchant to (maybe) go home late, most of the things Tsuna had observed about his Cloud were more like conformation of what he, and most people, already knew— his absolute hate for crowding; his dislike for being ordered around; his displeasure of being in debt with anyone, repaying as soon as possible the person he had somehow been indebted to; his stubbornness for not taking anyone's suggestion easily; and lastly, his love for fights, always challenging those he deemed strong.

Well, it wasn't like Tsuna was in a hurry to solve the enigma that was Hibari Kyoya, or learn the secret behind the peculiar feelings, or be his friend. The brunette knew that all of those would take time to accomplish, and step by step he definitely would.

... .. .

"But Neo Primo!" Gokudera's shout rang throughout the classroom, and by now their classmates had learned to ignore the overly devoted right-hand man's usual outburst. "Do you really have to go today? You already 'helped' that fucking bastard far too much already! It wouldn't hurt for you to not go just this once, right? Or better yet, you should quit working for him all together!"

A tired-looking Tsuna stared at his right-hand man. He could actually _see_ Gokudera's eagerness, his expectation that he would finally agree with him, if the pink blush on his cheeks and sparkles around his face were anything t go by.

He sighed. "Gokudera-kun," Tsuna began, clearly exhausted. "Are we really going to do this every single day I helped out Hibari-san?"

"Yes! Especially if it meant I'll finally be able to persuade you to quit one day, Neo Primo!" Gokudera answered with zeal.

Tsuna stared again at the exasperating sparkles, before letting out another sigh. _How many does it make it today?_ Every time he was about to go out and be on his way to the reception room, Gokudera would always slid in front of him and tried his best to stop him from ever going.

The brunette was touched at first at how much is friend cared for his well-being, but then it got more and more tiresome as Gokudera religiously continued it for every single _freaking_ day he had to help Hibari out. Usually, Yamamoto would aid him with the silver-haired, but his easy-going friend unfortunately had baseball practice today, leaving Tsuna to fend off Gokudera by himself.

"Besides, Neo Primo," Gokudera continued with his persuasion. "You shouldn't get too close to that bastard."

Tsuna immediately gazed up at Gokudera, who looked far too serious to his liking. "What do you mean, Gokudera-kun?"

"He's hiding something," the silver-haired answered, jade-green eyes slid to the side as his mind flashed back to the times his suspicions were aroused. "I don't know what, but I'm certain it has something to do with you, Neo Primo. But that's not only the reason why you shouldn't get close to him. I know you already know this, but that bastard is also violent, cruel, not to mention cold—"

"Wait a minute, Gokudera-kun—"

"He's too uncooperative, and only does what he wants—"

"You may be right, but—"

"Worst of all, he uses fear and authority just to assault others and—"

" _You're wrong, Gokudera-kun!_ "

Gokudera immediately shut his mouth in shock, while their remaining classmates turned to them in surprise at Tsuna's sudden temper.

The brunette, on the other hand, blushed in embarrassment when he realized he just shouted at his friend, and the curious stares from their classmates were only helping deepen his shame.

"S-Sorry," Tsuna apologized. He took a deep breath then, before he gazed straight into Gokudera's still-widened eyes. "But you're mistaken about Hibari-san using fear and authority just to hurt others, Gokudera-kun. Hibari-san may use violence—and sometimes fear—to discipline others, but that's just how he does things. That's just his own… sense of justice…"

Tsuna's voice trailed off as his mind recalled a certain afternoon, when Hibari had dismissed him early. He didn't go straight home that day; Nana had texted him to buy some carrots for dinner, and on his way home from the store, he had stumbled upon the prefect biting some third year Nami-Chuu students to death.

Hibari was already finished disciplining when Tsuna had bravely ran up to him.

" _Did you really have to bite them that hard?" Tsuna asked as he winced at the sight of the battered third years. It may not have been obvious, but he knew there were some cracked bones amongst the injuries they received._

" _I had to," Hibari surprisingly answered. He nudged with his black shoe the unconscious head closest to him. "If not, then these herbivores will never learn their lesson."_

 _Tsuna blinked at the justification. He next looked up and stared at Hibari, who in turn faced him to return his gaze. "Is that why you always bite people to death, Hibari-san?"_

Is that why you always use violence to discipline others?

 _Hibari didn't answer the question directly. "Fear, kindness, authority—there are a lot of ways to discipline, little animal. And what I found the most effective is violence and fear." The raven-haired broke the gaze then, before he once more stared at the beaten bodies beneath him. "No one likes to get hurt, so I use that fear to correct these rule-breaking herbivores' behavior. Because if I don't, they'll only continue to violate the rules, and then one day, they might do something they will forever regret."_

Tsuna could only stare at Hibari in silent awe then. And when nothing was exchanged between them after that, the prefect had swiftly turned and left, calling with his phone the other Committee members to pick up the unconscious third years as he walked away.

"…but Neo Primo, even if you say that that's the bastard Hibari's own sense of justice, it still sounds pretty twisted to me," Gokudera finally commented when Tsuna went quiet for a while.

"Well, I guess it's a little bit twisted with him using violence and fear…" Tsuna agreed, though not wholly.

"A _little_ bit?" Gokudera raised a brow.

The brunette sighed again. "Look, Gokudera-kun, what I'm trying to say here is that not everything Hibari-san does is out of malice, and that you should try to understand him too—after all, he's part of our family."

"But—"

"No buts, Gokudera-kun." Tsuna sternly interjected. "And I really need to go now, or else Hibari-san will bite me to death." He glanced at their classroom's clock then, and when Gokudera was about to protest again—Tsuna promptly passed him by and went out of the door, leaving the silver-haired stunned at his Sky's blatant disregard for him.

 _Sorry, Gokudera-kun,_ the brunette silently apologized as he walked on. He didn't want to hurt Gokudera like that, but he couldn't also help the bitter anger that arose and lingered when the silver-haired condemned his fellow Guardian. He didn't deny that Hibari could be cruel, aloof, and violent—but he also knew, especially after the observations he had made, that those were not the only things that made up his Cloud.

Slowly, Tsuna came to a halt. He then deepen the furrow of his brows, and casted his eyes to the ground.

He had once thought that the other members of the Disciplinary Committee were following Hibari only because he was strong, but he recently found out that that wasn't true—that that was only a small part of the truth. The members did not only respect the head prefect for his strength, but they also admire Hibari for who he was.

Tsuna wasn't all that surprised. When he had thought about it, Hibari really was an admirable person; he was strong, confident, straightforward, and reliable—everything he wasn't—even if he could be cruel and violent most of the time. And these traits, add more the raven-haired's self-assuredness and certainty on his own actions, were what Tsuna respected about Hibari, and at the same time jealous about.

Because for him, those characteristics were what made a great leader, and as the future boss of the new Vongola Famiglia, he understood that he needed them too.

Almost frustratingly, Tsuna tightened his grip on the straps of his school bag. At the time he had made the decision to rebuild Vongola, his reluctance to accept the role of new Primo had all disappeared, but was immediately replaced by his uncertainty in leading.

He lacked the confidence to head the Famiglia, and he wasn't even sure if he could guide Vongola well.

A smile with the barest hint of mirth now found its way to Tsuna's lips. He kind of found it funny, and at the same time ironic, how just a little more than a month ago, he was still against the idea of being involve with the Mafia—and now, he was worried if he could even lead his Famiglia properly.

Of course, Tsuna was aware that Reborn would have eventually learned of his lack of confidence. From time to time then he had wondered, and at the same time feared, what the hitman would do about it. He was surprised then when the infant had announced that the arrangement was also a way for him to learn about leading, specifically from Hibari.

At first he didn't took that proposition seriously—not only because it sounded like an offhanded suggestion, but it was also because Reborn wasn't demanding about it in his progress reports, and quite frankly, Hibari didn't seem to be the leader type at all—but now, Tsuna knew better.

He knew now he had a lot of things he could learn from his mysterious Cloud; and as crazy and absurd Reborn's teaching styles always were, Tsuna was truly grateful for this one.

Finally, the soon-to-be boss smiled with a good amount of gaiety. He now had another thing to thank Reborn for, and with the things his tutor had given him in his mind, mainly his Famiglia, Tsuna at last lifted his face up, and began to walk again.

... .. .

"Good afternoon," Tsuna greeted after he knocked twice and before he slid closed the door, as what had become customary.

Hibari answered him with his usual one syllable reply, eyes trained at the words on the document at hand, and only after that did Tsuna took his seat on the couch.

Kusakabe, as always, entered the scene subsequently catering tea. And when he had served them both, he declared his leave to Hibari and carry out his own duties.

Like some on-scheduled train then, after the second-in-command left, silence came over the two teens that remained.

This was how Tsuna's time with Hibari would always start, and most of the time end—in reticence. Though unlike before when he would go home when the sky was still a fiery orange, recently, the brunette found himself leaving the school long after the heaven turned black.

And apparently, today was one of those days too.

Tsuna glanced warily at the darkened sky. He was glad that he managed to finish all the tasks Hibari gave to him, but he was worried now at how late he ended up working again, especially because he had to wake up early tomorrow morning for his demon of a tutor's harsh training.

Inwardly he sighed, since he was somewhat afraid to make any unnecessary sound to the ever-silent room, before he finally stood up and walked quietly towards the skylark.

Without a word or even a glance, Hibari took the papers from Tsuna's hand. At some point in their arrangement, this surrendering of white sheets had become the signal for the brunette's dismissal.

The act may be cold, distant—but Tsuna didn't really expect much, this was Hibari after all—yet, despite that, there was one thing Hibari never failed to say whenever he went home late, when the sky was dark enough for the stars to shine, when he was sometimes only an inch out of the door—

"Be careful on your way home, herbivore."

Not once had Hibari said it while looking at him. The raven-haired's blue-gray eyes were always on the paper in his hand—like the words he just spoke were merely something he had absentmindedly thought and said. Tsuna supposed that this was just the Hibari Kyoya-style of showing concern. Besides, even if the words had the scantest ounce of care, it nevertheless always gave him some sliver of hope—that one day, the friendship he wanted to have with Hibari wouldn't be a pipe dream anymore.

And honestly, those maybe offhanded-said words of worry never failed to make Tsuna smile.


	11. Interval V

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s): Ep. 59, 61, 64 & 65/ Ch. 127, 130, & 133-135**

 **Author's note:** Okay… I won't say sorry anymore for the _hours_ of lateness, since in other places it's still Saturday (it's already Sunday here in my home turf), and also because I know you would all understand. (Thanks!)

So here's the next interval, which I hope you will all enjoy. Chapter 6 will be up on Wednesday (hopefully).

 **ETA:** _Shinai -_ the bamboo sword used for Kendo practice and competition

... .. .

 **Interval V: After the fight**

What Kyoya _hated_ a lot more than crowding—that, at least, he could tolerate, even for just a bit—and actually, more than anything else, was being restrained.

It was no wonder then that he was able to overpower the subduing poison, though he destroyed the pole out of pure spite. However, smashing the aforementioned pole wasn't enough to soothe his irritation, that's why Kyoya was glad to meet the so-called genius of the Varia (if he remembered correctly)—he got to vent his anger out on a much more durable target, _and_ he got to fight a strong opponent. Two birds with one stone.

 _Smirk_.

It was just sad that the blonde herbivore wasn't much though. "Not as big as his talk."

As Kyoya walked on the school grounds, the ongoing fight in the dark sky igniting flashes of orange every now and then, he could feel his annoyance rise. Wherever he look he could see destroyed school property—shattered windows, ruined buildings, freaking _smashed grounds_ —he would definitely bite Tsuna later for this, even if the school would be fixed like a battle didn't even happen. For now though, Kyoya needed to make sure that no dead bodies would litter in his school. That silver-haired herbivore he saved earlier should also do his part and free the other dying herbivores, like what he was about to do.

Upon entering the very much ravaged south tower, Kyoya immediately saw a familiar face lying in pain on the concrete floor: Yamamoto Takeshi. In his state, the fellow raven-haired didn't even notice him until he took his hand and gave him the antidote.

Freed from the poison but still feeling disabled, Takeshi crouched for now. "Thanks. You're a lifesaver."

Kyoya turned his back to him. "If you died on the school grounds, it'd disrupt the peace," he answered. "If you're going to die, do it outside."

Takeshi laughed a bit. "What's with that?" He knew better than to be deterred.

The older male didn't answer him. He began to walk instead, when he suddenly felt weak—he needed to collide against a wall just to prevent himself from falling.

"Oi, are you alright?"

Kyoya righted himself. "What are you talking about?" he asked nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened.

Takeshi just smiled weakly at the other raven-haired's stubbornness.

"We're not done cleaning the school grounds yet," Kyoya said next, blue-gray eyes gazing forward; his voice, almost a whisper. He was not about to stand down.

"I know." Takeshi tightened his grip on the strap that held his _shinai_. He stared resolutely forward too. "We'll trade. I'll take care of it from here."

Again, Kyoya didn't feel the need to reply. And once more, after walking a few steps, he was stopped—but this time by Takeshi's voice.

"Wait, Hibari!" Takeshi shouted. "Why don't we celebrate with everyone after this?"

Kyoya turned just enough to stare at Takeshi with one eye. He raised a dark eyebrow. "It's not even sure if that herbivore will win, or if we're going to be alive after this. And you're talking about a celebration _now_?"

Takeshi grinned. "Don't worry, Tsuna will definitely win! But if it looks like he'll be in a pinch, we'll, of course, save him. And everyone's strong, so no one will die just like that, Hibari."

"So what do you say?" Kyoya moved so that he was facing forward again. He stayed in place though, and kept silent. Takeshi decided to continue. "You're the only one missing now, Hibari. You're part of us again, and because of that, you have a reason now to go with us."

Even after all that, Kyoya remained mute. Takeshi rubbed the back of his neck as he remembered something. "Don't tell me you don't want to go 'cause of the crowd?"

"…I'm not part of anything," Kyoya finally spoke, though it wasn't an answer to Takeshi's question. "And whatever we may all had is gone now, Yamamoto Takeshi. It's all in the past." He began to walk. "The only reason I'm participating in these battles is because I still have some unfinished business with a certain pineapple-head herbivore, and nothing else."

"Even if that's so, we'll still wait for you, Hibari! Don't forget that!" Takeshi could only shout as Kyoya finally exited the damaged building.

Later that night, with the Sky Ring's rejection of Xanxus, and the latter's subsequent disqualification, Tsuna won the battle, and became the rightful successor to the Vongola Famiglia.

The next day, they celebrated at Takeshi's house. Takeshi told Ryohei and the others what he had talked about with Kyoya, and with anxious hearts, they waited for his arrival.

Kyoya never came.


	12. Chapter 6: Obento

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's rambling:** I'm not... going to say anything anymore about my lateness. Just hope you enjoy this chapter.

Oh and, next update will be on Saturday (for sure).

 **Naming difference on food (** at least, in this fanfic, and in Japan too **):**

 **Hamburger (** _hanbāgā **)**_ – the beef patties in a bun

 **Hamburg (** _hanbāgu_ **)** – the dish that's like Salisbury steak

*Though the fanbook said Hibari's favorite food is hamburger steak, Hibarin, who is essentially Hibari, explicitly said that his favourite is "Hamburg". That's what I'm going to follow, since it's more canon (and even if Hamburg and Hamburger steak may actually be the same thing, I'll still use Hamburg [steak]).

... .. .

 **Chapter 6: Obento**

Tsuna had noted that for the past few days, Hibari wasn't sleeping as much on the roof during lunch like he should, and that he looked paler and more tired than usual. He asked Kusakabe then, during one of the very rare afternoons when they were left alone in the reception room while Hibari opted to patrol instead of tackling arduous paperwork, if he had noticed it too.

"It's hard not to," the second-in-command confessed. "But Kyoya-san won't even let sleep get in the way of his duties. We from the Committee already asked him several times to take a day or at least an afternoon off, but he always refused." Kusakabe stared at the document in his hand, the neatly printed words barely registering in his mind. He looked understandably defeated, not to mention frustrated.

Tsuna furrowed his brows as he adjusted his seat on the green couch. He decided to ask a question he always wanted to know the answer to. "Do you know when does he eat his lunch then, Kusakabe-san?"

The older of the two let out a tired sigh. "Actually, Kyoya-san rarely eats lunch. He always preferred to take a nap during lunch break, and now that that's become a rarity too, I'm afraid we might one day see our Chairman collapsed on the ground due to starvation or lack of sleep. Maybe even both."

The brunette watched Kusakabe massage the bridge of his nose after his speech, to ease the aching worry for the now very much likely event of the skylark's fall. He too worry about Hibari's health, and wondered what made his Cloud so busy that he had to skip his routine naps. His mind pictured then the uncommon amount of paperwork that Hibari had and still was working on, and somehow he knew—likely due to his intuition—that it wasn't because of school or Namimori that made Hibari so busy, that it was something else that needed a lot of the prefect's attention, and that something needed paperwork—a lot.

But since Tsuna didn't know what that other thing Hibari was busy with, (he had asked Kusakabe, and the latter told him there _were_ other things Hibari was busy with, but he should ask the head prefect directly if he wanted to know the details; Tsuna chose not to, since he knew Hibari would never tell), the very next day, he decided to help the skylark in his own way.

... .. .

"U-U-U-Um, H-Hibari-san, w-why don't you take a b-break?" Tsuna inwardly cursed at his pathetic stuttering. His fidgeting too, he found unnecessary. Also the way he nervously played with his fingers. His mind knew that Hibari wouldn't bite him to death for just asking, yet his body reacted otherwise.

It was now break. Lunch time. Midday. And the brunette was well aware the prefect found it strange that he was in his office.

He only came to the reception room after all in the afternoon, during the arrangement, or sometimes in the morning when he arrived late and got disciplined. The day wasn't even one of the predetermined days where he needed to help Hibari out. So Tsuna wasn't surprised at all when instead of responding to his suggestion, Hibari annoyingly asked, "What are you doing here?"

He still flinched at the tone though. "W-Well," he stuttered, eyes directed everywhere but Hibari's clearly irked ones, "I-I noticed the past few days that H-Hibari-san looks a lot more tired than usual, and t-that you don't really sleep as much anymore on the roof during lunch. T-That's why I… proposed to take a little break. We don't really want to see you suddenly collapse on the ground."

Hibari raised a dark eyebrow. He ignored the warmth that spread in his chest at Tsuna's concern. " 'We?' "

Tsuna bravely met Hibari's gaze. "Kusakabe-san and the other Committee members are worried about you too."

The raven-haired narrowed his eyes at that, before he returned his attention on the documents at hand. "Your concerns are not necessary. I won't collapse so easily, little animal. I am not weak."

Tsuna may admire Hibari's confidence, but that self-assurance only annoyed him now. _He obviously needs some rest, but he still won't let himself sleep._ He finally asked then what he really came for that noon. "If you don't want to rest, then how about you eat lunch with us, Hibari-san?" When Hibari refused to answer, his blue-gray eyes unremoved from the papers, the brunette continued, "Kusakabe-san told me you prefer to nap during lunch time, but since you're currently against that, then if you at least eat something, your body—"

" _I already told you your concerns are unnecessary_ ," Hibari interjected, eyes now aglare, "and have you forgotten my hate for crowds? I still have many things I need to finish so I can't rest, and I definitely won't eat with you herbivores. That's final. Now get out, or _I'll bite you to death_."

Tsuna reluctantly did what he was told.

... .. .

However, he was still worried about his Cloud's health.

So, as if it was the most obvious solution to his worry, Tsuna settled to make a homemade bento for Hibari.

 _He didn't really say he won't eat_ , the brunette reasoned to himself as he shopped for a few needed ingredients. _He only said he didn't want to eat_ with us _, because he hates crowding. So, maybe, if I give him some lunch he could at least be a little less… grouchy. And healthier._ Though he knew he could just buy some store-made obento, or maybe bread if he didn't have enough money, Tsuna opted to make one since it's a lot healthier, and much, _much_ cheaper. So he did just that.

But, as if proving his no-goodness to their kitchen, Tsuna failed. Quite spectacularly. He did not only make the food turn into a horrifying monstrosity of inedible black glob, but he also managed to create a hole in all of the pots and pans he used. Not to mention ruined the burners. And maybe destroyed the only stove they had.

Reborn aptly kicked him in the head then. After that pointed Leon-turned-gun to his forehead.

" _Baka-Tsuna_ , if you're going to fail at something, don't make unnecessary damages. _Especially_ to the kitchen." Reborn loved Nana's cooking after all.

Humiliatingly-in-boxers-only-Dying-Will-Tsuna was seen screaming and running around Namimori not too long later.

"I'LL BUY THOSE MUSHROOMS I FORGOT LIKE MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!"

... .. .

After that demeaning run while shouting for mushrooms, Tsuna wasn't able to cook anymore since he apparently _did_ manage to destroy their only stove. It made Reborn more furious, and subsequently banned him from the kitchen until further notice.

Now empty-handed and not even a lunch for himself, the brunette stood in line for cafeteria bread, just minutes after he denied Gokudera's food offering that consisted of the silver-haired's own lunch. He didn't really want another Guardian to not eat properly.

 _Speaking of another Guardian…_ the day was Wednesday, one of the agreed days of the arrangement, and just thinking of seeing his Cloud tired and sleep-deprived when he would come by later made Tsuna disappointed at himself for failing that bento, and for having nothing else he could do to help Hibari with his condition.

It was with the feeling of defeat and frustration then did Tsuna drag his feet back to his classroom after he bought his yakisoba bread. As he walked, he mildly wondered if this was what Kusakabe had felt, when Hibari wouldn't take their offer of rest.

They were really unpleasant feelings to have, to be honest.

"What's wrong, Tsuna-kun?"

Tsuna jumped at the unexpected voice. "Kyo— _Kyoko-chan?_ " He was seriously surprise to see Kyoko standing beside him. Last time he saw the girl, she was still in their classroom, chatting happily with Hana. Although, it _had_ been fifteen minutes since he left, and even if he was still far from their classroom, fifteen minutes was quite enough time for her to catch up to him. _But how come I didn't notice her?_ "Umm… what are you doing here?"

Kyoko smiled first at him, which subsequently made Tsuna blush. They began to walk. "I actually went to the cafeteria to buy my lunch too, since I forgot mine. Onii-chan went to school early today so he couldn't bring it," Kyoko explained. Tsuna only noticed then the custard-filled bread in her hand. "I actually went out not too long after you did, Tsuna-kun, but I wasn't able to approach you since there were a lot of people."

"But, placing that aside," Kyoko suddenly stopped and turned to face Tsuna, which made the boy's blush deepen; she was a little too close for his heart, "is there anything bothering you, Tsuna-kun? Your face was already all scrunched up when I walked up beside you earlier. I also think you wouldn't have notice me if I didn't spoke." The blush on Tsuna's cheeks quickly disappeared when he figured out the reason behind those. He scratched his right cheek then, before he turned his face frontward and smiled downheartedly as he explained.

They continued to walk. "You see, Kyoko-chan, lately… I notice Hibari-san looks more tired than usual. When I talked to Kusakabe-san about it, he told me that Hibari-san is actually sacrificing his sleep to do his duties. He also said that he rarely eats lunch, since he prefers to nap. But since he doesn't really do that anymore, we're afraid that Hibari-san might one day collapse due to starvation or exhaustion or something, so I thought of making him some lunch so he could at least have something to fuel him. But…" Tsuna's brows furrowed further at his pause, and unconsciously he tightened his grip on his yakisoba bread, "being the No-Good Tsuna that I am, I failed." The disappointed smile never left his lips.

"How about I help you then, Tsuna-kun?"

Tsuna immediately faced Kyoko and gazed questioningly at her. She looked oddly too cheerful. "Help you make that lunch for Hibari-san," the girl clarified with a wide smile, "since you look really worried about him. And I also think no one would like to see Hibari-san collapse on the ground or something. So how about it?"

The male brunette almost agreed when he remembered the state of their stove, and his ban from their kitchen. "But where are we going to cook? Reborn banned me from our kitchen since I kind of ruined our stove when I tried cooking yesterday…"

"Then how about our house?" Kyoko suggested.

 _K-K-Kyoko-chan's house?!_ That blush quickly crept back to Tsuna's cheeks. "A-A-Are you sure you're okay with it?"

"Of course!" Kyoko answered enthusiastically. "So is tomorrow after school okay with you? You have to help Hibari-san today, right?"

Tsuna could only nod his head all too happily, Hibari's worrisome condition momentarily forgotten as he thought dreamily about his not-really-date with Kyoko, the jealous glares of the other males who overheard very much ignored as he blushed on.

... .. .

"What do you want to make for him?"

"Eh?" The two had agreed yesterday, at a later time after their lunch, to meet up at the supermarket after they went back to their respective homes. It was more for appeasing Gokudera who would definitely complain for not being able to walk home again with his beloved boss, than for escaping the school idol's jealous fans. The two also decided to change from their school uniforms for comfort.

"So…?" Kyoko asked, still waiting for Tsuna's answer.

The male brunette adjusted his hold on the small empty red basket. He blushed a bit. "I-I really have no idea… I tried to cook different dishes the other day since I don't really know what Hibari-san likes…"

"Hmm… is that so…" Kyoko stared at the floor and tapped her chin as she thought, making Tsuna flushed more at her cuteness. His face fully reddened when the thought of how everything was just like a date came to him again, finally exploding then when his mind imagined the errand as his and Kyoko's first shopping trip together as newlyweds.

Tsuna swiftly shook his head and waved the thoughts away. _Mou, stop daydreaming! We're doing this for Hibari-san!_ He still couldn't hide his blush though.

"Ah! How about Hamburg steak, Tsuna-kun?" Kyoko exclaimed as she turned to the boy. She then tilted her head a bit to the side. "Hmm? Are you alright, Tsuna-kun? You look a bit red."

"Ah—no, this is nothing! I just feel a little hot, that's all!" Tsuna lied. "Oh and why Hamburg steak, by the way? I'm not really against it, but isn't curry or croquet easier to make?" he quickly added to distract the girl.

Kyoko immediately smiled at the question. "That's because I think it's Hibari-san's favorite!"

 _T-Think?_ Tsuna smiled weakly. "W-Where did you hear that from, Kyoko-chan?"

The female brunette didn't answer immediately. Instead, she walked two steps forwards so that she was now ahead of Tsuna. "It's a secret." _I actually learned it from you._ Kyoko enlaced her fingers behind her as her smile turned bittersweet at the forgotten memories, but then turned it back to a bright one immediately before Tsuna could notice. She also didn't really want to feel the melancholy brought by their unremembered bonds, not right now.

However, Tsuna felt that momentary sadness as he watched Kyoko's back. But since it disappeared as soon as it came, the male brunette wondered if he had imagined it or not.

 _I wonder where Kyoko-chan learned about Hibari-san's favorite food…_ Tsuna pondered next as he followed the girl. He wanted to know not only because he could use the source to learn more about Hibari, but also because strangely enough, Hibari's favorite food being hamburger steak sounded just right.

Like it's exactly the truth.

Tsuna now watched Kyoko with deeply furrowed brows as she picked the meat for their dish. _Maybe she learned it from Hibari-san?_ He could imagined it too—the cheerful Kyoko casually asking Hibari his favorite food—and immediately the jealousy course up through his veins—but then, just as soon, the ugly emotion disappeared. Because as plausible as it was, there was something—his Hyper Intuition, maybe?—that told him that that _wasn't it._ Like he already knew where Kyoko actually got the information, he just couldn't _remember_.

Tsuna blinked at that last thought. He had known Kyoko since elementary school (she was already the school's idol back then), but not once during those six years had they became classmates, nor had any conversations. So how come he _knew_ where Kyoko got the information about Hibari's food? Did they talk to each other before middle school?

 _Huh? Wait—_ had he only known Kyoko in elementary school? Didn't he already know her earlier than that _? Like in—in—a… kindergarten? A Yochien may—_

"Tsuna-kun!" Everything Tsuna just thought quickly vanished as he veered to his left to face Kyoko. She was holding up the ground beef in her right hand as she stared worriedly at him.

"Are you alright? You were spacing out earlier," the girl asked while she placed the meat in the basket.

Tsuna smiled in embarrassment. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something…" though he could barely remember what. He then told Kyoko not to worry about it, before he walked beside her to continue with their shopping.

... .. .

That terrible red blush never quite left Tsuna's cheeks since he entered the house. It was their school idol's home after all— _his crush's_ —even if the suburban house was just as ordinary and nondescript as his.

So he tried his best to concentrate as Kyoko patiently taught him the steps of making a Hamburg steak, and also the proper ways of doing things in the kitchen. He managed to absorb them, thankfully, and as his nervousness and racing heart quelled considerably, Tsuna asked something that's been bothering him.

"Umm… where are Onii-san and your parents?"

Kyoko didn't stop her chopping. "Onii-chan is training as always, while Otou-chan and Okaa-chan won't be back until late tonight from work," she offhandedly answered.

Tsuna's face immediately turned as red as a ripe tomato. "I-I-Is that so?" _S-So it's just the two of us here?!_ His neck joined the reddening at that thought, and whether Kyoko noticed the very obvious flushing or not, she didn't comment.

Though, actually, Kyoko had been curiously less talkative since they went out of the supermarket. Less cheerful. Tsuna didn't fail to notice this, but his distracting hormones didn't really let him address the issue until now.

With his blush finally lessening to his cheeks, Tsuna asked, "Is there something bothering you, Kyoko-chan?"

Another bittersweet smile found its way to Kyoko's lips. She stopped her movements. "Ne, Tsuna-kun, you told us before that you're helping Hibari-san because Reborn-kun told you to, but is there any other reason why you do?"

Tsuna stared confusedly at Kyoko, whose eyes were still on the carrots she stopped chopping. He decided to tell the truth. "Actually, Kyoko-chan, the first reason why I want to help Hibari-san out is because—I want to know more about him. Reborn's order just came by later."

"Really?" Tsuna was relieved that Kyoko finally turned to him with a bright smile. She looked a bit excited too. "Why do you want to know more about him then?"

"Eh—well… that's because out of all my Guardians, Hibari-san is the farthest away from me. Not only that, I don't really know much about him either. Also…" Tsuna rubbed the back of his neck, abruptly feeling embarrassed. He stared at the floor. "I-I want to be his friend—that's another reason why I'm helping out."

"Are those the only reason why?" Tsuna looked up at Kyoko at the unexpected question. "What… do you mean, Kyoko-chan?" He locked gazes with her honey-brown eyes then, and all too suddenly he felt—anxious. _Does—does she know about the feelings? But, wait—that's impossible._ He never told anyone about those after gulped.

 _Should I… tell her?_

Kyoko broke the gaze. She returned to staring at the hardly chopped orange roots. "Wanting to know more about Hibari-san, wanting to be his friend—are those the only reason why you're helping him out, Tsuna-kun? Is being worried about his health the only reason why you're making him an obento?"

When the male brunette took too long to answer, Kyoko faced him once more with that wistful smile. "What I'm trying to ask, Tsuna-kun, is why are you doing this for him? You wouldn't have bothered before even if you knew about his weakening health."

"W-Well," the boy finally spoke, "that's because Hibari-san is—" _family._ Tsuna thinned his lips and scrunched his brows together. He felt reluctant to say that—all because it didn't _felt_ right; it didn't felt like it was the right answer at all.

And even though that was what he actually thought, the way Kyoko's eyes were searching his right now, and the clear expectancy he was seeing on those honey-brown orbs—"It's because…"—told him that there was another answer, that _he_ actually knew the right reply—the truth—"Hibari-san is—"—but he just couldn't, really could not—"He is—"

 _Throb._

"Tsuna-kun?" Tsuna snapped out of his sudden reverie. He stared in slight confusion at the worried Kyoko. "Ah—sorry, Kyoko-chan. What I actually wanted to say earlier was that Hibari-san is part of the Famiglia, that's why I'm doing this all for him."

"Is… that so…" Kyoko said as she gave Tsuna one last concerned stare, before she returned to chopping the carrots. She had actually hoped—wished that Tsuna was beginning to remember, even just a little bit, even if it's just only his friendship with Hibari. But she guessed that was still an impossible dream.

 _Tsuna-kun still can't recall anything after all._

Kyoko only nodded her head when Tsuna asked her again if she was alright. She then gave him a cheerful smile, this time a genuine one, which made Tsuna relieved. They soon continued to make the Hamburg steak with a lighter atmosphere, although as Kyoko fried the bite-size patties on the skillet, she couldn't help but worry at how Hibari was handling all of this.

... .. .

The head prefect was honestly surprised—not at all annoyed, for once—when Tsuna unexpectedly entered the reception room and silently placed a package wrapped in purple cloth on his desk. He glared at the brunette for his intrusion then, but Tsuna didn't flinch; instead, he held his ground with a familiar courage and resolution in his caramel-brown eyes.

Curious, Hibari finally opened the parcel before him and raised one black eyebrow at what he saw.

It was an obento. A Hamburg steak obento. He wondered then if Tsuna could have— _no, that can't be._ The skylark decided that it was just coincidence then.

"Since you still refuse to take a rest or eat with us, then you should at least fill your stomach with something," Tsuna explained when Hibari gazed questioningly at him for the clearly homemade packed-lunch. He then turned around and sat quietly on the green couch, unwrapping his own orange-clothed obento shortly after.

"J-Just for today," Tsuna answered when he felt Hibari's demanding stare. The skylark narrowed his eyes at that, before he looked down and debated if he should eat the offered food or not.

He eventually did. And it was delicious. "It's… pleasant-tasting, little animal," Hibari couldn't help but say.

Tsuna smiled happily at the prefect's praise. "T-Thanks," he said with a slight blush, abashed. "Oh, and I actually made that with Kyoko-chan," he added, not wanting to take all the credit.

Hibari immediately broke his chopsticks. Memories of irritating pink notebooks and unnerving smiles invaded his mind.

Tsuna was glad he brought an extra pair.

Since that day then, the brunette would bring Hibari an obento every lunch, made by him of course, though Nana would sometimes help. Reborn had finally lifted his ban on their kitchen once the infant knew the reason behind his sudden interest in cooking. He was, however, constantly teased by the demon tutor for that.

After a week, Tsuna also made sure to eat with Hibari on Tuesdays and Thursdays—his right-hand man would had thrown a fit if he ate with Hibari on the days of their arrangement, three days out of five of their school days—just to ascertain that his Cloud was actually eating the lunch, and not ignoring it as what Kusakabe had told him he would sometimes do. The prefect had chased him out for the annoyance at first, but his persuasion eventually paid off, and now they would eat in a familiar silence.

Although, at times—not only when Tsuna was eating with Hibari, but also when he would think about the next meal—Kyoko's searching eyes, that _throb_ , that fleeting ache he had felt before when Hibari had teared away from him, and the girl's words—questions from that afternoon, were sometimes recalled by his mind.

" _Why are you doing this for him?"_

He still couldn't find the right answer.


	13. Interval VI

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s): Ep. 14/ Ch. 42** (*I followed the anime version more on this one)

 **Author's note:**

To my dear readers, especially to that anon reviewer, I know that the pacing of this fanfic is slow, but please bear with me. This fanfic isn't actually only about Tsuna and Hibari's friendship—there's a reason why this is titled _Their Bonds_ , though I think I kinda failed on the other supposed-to-be aspects of this fanfic.

TB also actually has phases or arcs, whichever you prefer, and we just recently finished the first one (prologue to interval V is the first). The second phase/arc began from chapter 6, and a lot of things will happen from here on out. I also want to resolve and/or mention some issues Tsuna and co. has been going through before anything major about Tsuna and Hibari's friendship will be done.

Me not updating for two weeks ( _twice_ , sorry) may had also contributed to the slowness of TB (the feeling, at least, not the content). Also, I already made an outline for the whole story before I wrote it, meaning, each chapter already has its predetermined content, and I don't think I can change the pace much anymore (but we'll still see).

So again, please bear with me. If you can't, then I suggest you come back after TB has a few more chapters out or is already finished. I'll do my best to update every week now - on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Thank you for your understanding.

(p.s. next update will be on Wednesday. Also, my OTP will forever be 1827.)

... .. .

 **Interval VI: Let's go again sometime!**

"Can you escort Tsuna to the zoo tomorrow?"

"Eh?" Kyoko swiftly turned her head to the right, and was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar suit-wearing child sitting atop the concrete wall. "Reborn-kun!" It never came to her mind how dangerous it was for a five-year old to sit on top of a high wall, or how a toddler could even possibly climb up there.

She just stepped closer to him and smiled. "Sure, I'm free tomorrow. But why so suddenly?"

"I was thinking Tsuna should have a partner-pet like Leon here," Reborn explained as he stretched out his short arm. The green chameleon on his fedora readily walked down to his open hand and blinked with its orange eyes at Kyoko. The girl supposed that was its own way of greeting. "The zoo has a variety of animals that you can pick out for him. I want you to choose one that you think best suits Tsuna."

"Eh—I'm the one picking? Shouldn't Tsuna-kun be the one to do that?"

"Tsuna might choose something lame, that's why I'm asking you," Reborn rebuffed. "Also, you're not the only one who's going to pick an animal for him. I also asked Yamamoto, Gokudera, Haru, Bianci, I-Pin, and Lambo, though everyone will arrive at the zoo at different times tomorrow since their schedule won't match."

Kyoko lightly thumped her right fist on her left palm. "Is that why you asked me if I can escort him? Since I'm free?"

Reborn only smiled at her deduction. He let Leon walk back to its usual spot on his fedora. "Come pick Tsuna up at nine-thirty tomorrow."

The brunette smiled too. "Okay!" She then raised her hand, to wave goodbye, when she halted just after she remembered one important thing. "Umm… Reborn-kun," Kyoko began, her voice hesitant. The infant wondered what she wanted to ask.

"Could you also ask Hibari-san if he can come tomorrow?"

Reborn stared at the girl. "…I already did," he answered slowly, now curious as to why she wanted the prefect to come with them too. "But he refused."

Kyoko lowered her head in clear disappointment. "Is that so…" She expected that response though. After all, Tsuna was the only person she knew who was capable of persuading Kyoya to "crowd"—in the raven-haired's term—with them. Hana too, Kyoko remembered, sometimes needed her persuasion too. She would need to in this occasion; but Hana had just told her earlier in school about her plans for the whole day tomorrow, so she wouldn't be able to invite her.

After closing her eyes and breathing her dissatisfaction out, Kyoko raised her head and smiled once more at Reborn. The infant noticed it was less cheery. "I guess Hibari-san is too busy to come. Bye then, Reborn-kun. See you tomorrow."

"Ne, Kyoko," Reborn suddenly called when the girl was already a few feet away. Kyoko turned to him with that still less cheerful smile. "Yes? What is it?"

"…" The hitman gazed at the brunette with his large, beady eyes. Kyoko, on the other hand, only stood there, lowered hands gripping the strap of her school bag, quietly waiting for him to speak. But whatever it was Reborn had wanted to say, she wasn't able to hear—for the infant seemed to have decided not to say it anymore. "No, it's nothing. Sorry for stopping you. And before I forgot, tell Ryohei to come tomorrow too."

Kyoko tilted her head a bit to the side, confused. She chose not to probe. "Okay."

... .. .

It was arguably one of the most memorable days for her, the trip to the zoo.

Not only because of the accidental release of the animals (which surprisingly was Lambo's doing), but also because Kyoko was able to confirm with her own two eyes—that the brave Tsuna-kun she once knew and admired was still _there_.

"A moment ago, Tsuna-kun, you were more… you seemed more dependable!"

And though surely, in other people's point of view, a day at the zoo where you barely saw any animals (safely in a cage), almost got attacked by a lion, and spent most of the day capturing the escaped creatures would be counted as something not fun—just pure bad luck, Kyoko thought otherwise. She truly enjoyed her time, and if given the chance, she would definitely do it again.

"It was really fun, Tsuna-kun! Let's go again sometime, ne!"


	14. Chapter 7: Rivalry

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's note:** I did my best. Please do expect from now on of delays like this.

 _Engawa -_ wooden strip of flooring immediately before windows and storm shutters inside traditional Japanese rooms

 _Shoji -_ a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo

 _Zabuton -_ Japanese cushion for sitting

 _Sozu -_ type of water fountain used in Japanese gardens; it consists of a segmented tube, usually of bamboo, pivoted to one side of its balance point

*all of the definitions above are taken from wikipedia

... .. .

 **Chapter 7: Rivalry**

The orange sneakers folded at the toes as Tsuna extended his hand up for a book on the highest shelf. With a bit more stretching (and quite a bit cursing for his still short stature), he finally got the book—but frowned the moment he saw the cover.

"Wrong one, _again_."

 _How many times has it been now?_ He placed the book back on a shelf much more agreeable to his height. After sighing heavily, he pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and subsequently glared at damnable list given to him by none other than Hibari Kyoya.

" _Since school is only half day today, you should use those additional free hours for the Committee. So go buy the things listed_ at the places specified _on that paper. I expect you to be back after three hours."_

That was what Hibari said when Tsuna had asked what the paper was for. A death glare was then given when he had questioned about the possibility of not being able to finish the shopping in three hours. He didn't really mind going out to buy things for the Committee (since it also meant his training time for that afternoon would be reduced greatly), but what he did minded—was that he had to go to a different store for _each_ of the books and office supplies listed.

 _And Hibari-san has to be particular about that._

It had already been two hours and a half since Tsuna got the list, but however fortunate he was that he was able to buy almost all the items, he rather felt fate was just toying with him since almost an hour of that two and a half was used to find the last thing he needed to purchase:

 _\- Discipline and Torture: The Perfect Couple!_

He had decided not to ask Hibari why the Committee needed the book.

"Hahi! Tsuna-san!"

"Eh—" Tsuna turned to his left. "Haru?" He wasn't surprised at all to see the pony-tailed girl, considering there's only one person he knew that uses "hahi" regularly in their sentences.

"Long time no see, Tsuna-san~!" Haru quickly ran up to the boy while waving her right hand in the air, her cheeks tinged in pink more so from the sight of her love than from the run. "Are you here shopping like Haru? Though it's unusual to see you in a store like this if you are."

"W-Well, yeah… kind of." Tsuna blushed a bit. He had to admit that it was really strange for a guy like him to be in a girly stationery shop. He had checked _thrice_ if he was in the right place, but the special book section the store had, which accommodated rare and uncommon books, not to mention its very queer name ("The S. Shop"—even the employees didn't know what the "S." means when he had asked around, and Tsuna didn't want to assume by the book he was looking for), showed him that he was indeed in the right store.

"How about you, Haru?" The lighter brunette asked in turn. "Buying some stationery?"

"Yup!" The girl cheerfully replied. "After all, Valentines is just two weeks away!" Her flushed cheeks became redder then as she swiftly hugged Tsuna's left arm. "That's why Haru is here to buy the perfect stationery to write my love letter to you, Tsuna-san!"

Tsuna tried his best to gently pry Haru off. "N-No, you really don't have to do that…" He wasn't successful.

"Ah, that's right! Haru is also here to buy some supplies for her next costume!" The boy lifted a disbelieving brow. _They have those here too?_ He was staring to doubt the innocence of the stationary shop. "So do you want to see it? It's actually almost done! Haru just needs to add some final touches and it's finished!"

"Maybe next time," Tsuna declined with a raise of his free hand. "Besides, I still need to find this book. I've already wasted an hour looking for it and I still can't seem to find it." _Even if all the books are already in one place._ He suddenly sighed in defeat. _And now I only have thirty minutes left. I wonder if I can skip training today with all the beatings I'll most probably receive from Hibari-san? But, knowing Reborn, he'll definitely proceed with the training even if I'm aching all over…_

"Then how about Haru helps you, Tsuna-san?"

"Eh?" _D-Did she read my thoughts?!_

"Then afterwards, we can go see the costume!" the girl offered.

Tsuna sighed inwardly, in relief or loss, he didn't care anymore. He finally gave in. "Alright, alright." He also didn't want to get bitten to death, really.

"So what's the title of the book?"

"Ah, well…" The lighter brunette suddenly felt uneasy. He unconsciously placed a hand on his hair and began ruffling it. _W-What if she misunderstands?_ "I-It's 'Discipline and Torture: The Perfect Couple!' "

Haru stared at her beloved for a good five seconds. "Umm… Tsuna-san, mind if Haru asks? What do you need that book for?"

Tsuna immediately blushed. _I knew it!_ "I-I-It's not what you think!" he exclaimed as he flailed his hands. "T-That book is not for me, but for Hibari-san!"

"Hibari-san?" Haru scrunched her brows and tilt her head to the side. "…what for?"

"Y-You see… I'm actually on an errand for him," Tsuna answered, "and that book is one of the things he told me to buy."

Somehow, Haru took that the wrong way. "Hahi! Tsuna-san, is Hibari-san taking advantage of you or something?!"

"Wha—no, it's nothing like that!" _I think…_ Tsuna ruffled his hair again. "It's a bit long to explain, and I don't really have much time left, so long story short, Hibari-san and I need to form some kind of bond, and this errand is somehow part of creating that." _Okay, maybe not really._ But he wished that that explanation was enough to not warrant anymore horrible misunderstanding.

However, that immediate blush on Haru's cheeks mockingly affirmed his failure. "Hahi! Bo—Bond?!" the dark-brunette exclaimed. "W-Wait—Discipline… Torture… Perfect Couple… Bond… Bond— _Bondage?!_ " Haru now stepped back from Tsuna, a hand in front of a disbelieving face. "T-Tsuna-san, don't tell me you and Hibari-san are like—like—like _that_?!"

"No—NO!" Tsuna screamed. _How the hell did she even came up to that conclusion?!_ "Hibari-san and I—"

But he was suddenly cut off by a palm in front of his face. "There's no need to explain, Tsuna-san," Haru said with a gleam of resolve in her eyes. "Haru will always accept you for whoever you are but," she then paused, and Tsuna dreaded the next line of words, "what Haru will never accept is for you to end up with someone other than Haru!"

 _WHAT?!_

"That's why Haru will do everything to get Tsuna-san back!"

 _I'm not even yours to begin with!_ But before Tsuna could even open his mouth to protest, he was dragged by the very determined Haru out of the store and towards the direction of Namimori Middle School.

Now somewhere inside the shop, a pineapple-headed girl had witnessed the whole scene with one very attentive eye and a very pink blush on her cheeks.

... .. .

Tsuna had wondered why Haru had a Namimori uniform ready in her bag, but wasn't able to ask. He also wasn't able to make her retreat from her current mission of taking him back, even if he was, again, not hers to begin with. Nevertheless, he was at least able to convince her to return to the shop and buy the things they went there for. He was still terrified of being bitten to death _for_ not accomplishing the task Hibari gave to him after all.

Although, he really didn't want to think what Hibari would do to him when Haru suddenly barged inside the reception room and slammed her hands defiantly on the prefect's desk.

Or when Hibari glared menacingly at Haru before turning to him with a _very_ angry scowl.

Tsuna tried his best to hide behind the currently fragile-looking sliding door.

With one last narrowing of his blue-gray eyes to his would-be boss ( _huh_ ), Hibari returned his glare back to the intruder in front of him and intensified it, wishing for Haru to leave without him lifting a single finger. This made the dark brunette to sweat-drop and her resolve to flicker, but her flame quickly steadied when she remembered her purpose.

"Hibari-san," Haru began, finally breaking the tense silence of the room, "Haru will not let you have your way with Tsuna-san."

… _what?_

"Love shouldn't be so hurtful and—and binding! Love should be gentle and filled with care!"

 _Huh?_

"I never thought Tsuna-san could be lured by something like this, but Haru will do everything she can to get him back!"

Hibari was very confused now.

On the other hand, Haru took a deep breath, placed her left fist on her waist, bravely pointed her right index finger to Hibari's face, and with all the courage left she could master, declared:

"As a love rival, Haru is challenging you, Hibari Kyoya! To a battle to win Tsuna-san's heart!"

All at once everything fell into place in the raven-haired's mind. Hibari slowly stood up then, glittering metal tonfas ready in his hands, while a dark, very murderous aura slowly seeped out from his being.

" _This again?_ "

Needless to say, Tsuna and Haru were promptly chased out by a super-irritated skylark, their screams and apologies echoing throughout the empty middle school.

A few hours and bitings later (on Tsuna ), Haru at last understood that it was all just a misunderstanding on her part, when Tsuna at last fully explained everything.

... .. .

"So how was your time with Hibari today?" Reborn asked after taking a sip of his favorite espresso, not at all hiding his all-knowing smirk. "And don't leave out any details, this is part of your progress report."

Tsuna did his utmost to will down his blush as he searched for bandages.

"Shut up, Reborn."

... .. .

"Itsuki-san of the Kokawa family filed a complaint saying that the Disciplinary Committee has been too lax with their duties, and questioned if the Committee can really maintain the peace in Namimori."

Hibari listened quietly as Kusakabe reported, his bare feet also silent with its steps on the old but well-maintained _engawa_ , while his black _gakuran_ jacket flew gently in accordance to the night wind.

"Noburu-san of the Samurakami family, on one hand, said that the new system of filing for a new business projects is too strict and meticulous, and that this would ultimately discourage the creation of new businesses."

The skylark's eyes remained steady as he tread on the familiar path, not letting it even wander on the rather large and elegant courtyard garden by his left side.

"In addition, Ryoko-san of the Okamoto family said that there's no need for us to build an animal sanctuary for homeless animals, and that it will only be a waste of our funds."

Finally, Hibari stopped in front of a _shoji_ door.

 _What weak herbivores_ , the young heir of the Hibari clan thought as he waited for Kusakabe to fully open the door. He then took the papers from his second-in-command when he strode inside, before he sat on the only _zabuton_ inside the room. To his front was a long block of carved wooden desk; while on his side was a small round table of freshly brewed tea.

As Hibari thoroughly read the papers, and skimming the parts Kusakabe already reported, he suddenly heard an obviously deliberate cough by the only other occupant of the spacious _tatami_ room.

"What happened earlier with Sawada-san was hilarious, wasn't it, Kyoya-san?"

Hibari immediately stopped what he was doing. The tap of the _sozu_ on stone was then heard, before the skylark slowly turned to his second-in-command, seated by the entrance, and raised a single, incredulous brow.

"Are you trying to make small talk, Kusakabe?"

"Uh… not really?" Kusakabe offered. Hibari still had that eyebrow raised. The man with the pompadour sighed. "You see, Kyoya-san, I think you shouldn't be too hard with Sawada-san, like earlier. He _is_ doing well with the tasks you've been giving him, right? Besides, beating him too much and then abruptly dismissing him won't really help much with your, umm… bonding."

"And do you really think I care about _that_?" Hibari spat, which made the other male blinked in surprise.

"Eh—but, isn't Sawada-san your—"

"Was, Kusakabe. _Was._ Former. Once. Previous. _Forgotten_."

Kusakabe sighed again. _I guessed he's still irritated about earlier._

The current second-in-command of Namimori Middle School's Disciplinary Committee, and basically Hibari's right-hand man, had learned of his boss's past friendship with Tsuna from the skylark's mother, Hibari Yuuki, back when they were all still living in his hometown.

Kusakabe's much younger self had once asked Yuuki about the woven ring Hibari had always wore, but got destroyed in a fight. The raven-haired mother had smiled sadly at first, before she told him of the young boy who was able to warm her son's once cold heart and made him his best friend. She also narrated to him the adventures the two had, the fights they had engaged, and the goodbye neither had want.

She revealed to him that the boy's name is Sawada Tsunayoshi—a small, but brave child. It didn't take Kusakabe that long to figure out that the Sawada Tsunayoshi Yuuki had mentioned, and the Sawada Tsunayoshi of their school, is one and the same.

Though he did doubt the "brave" description.

Back to the present, Kusakabe was currently trying to lighten his boss's mood. "But didn't you find it funny, Kyoya-san, when the girl Sawada-san was with thought there was something between you and him?" He then tried to laugh a little. "I don't really know why people thought you and Sawada-san have something going on. Even Sasagawa Ryohei made a—" Clamp. Shut. Sweat-drop. Kusakabe instinctively moved back a little when he finally saw Hibari's murderous glare.

The skylark seriously wanted to bite his second-in-command to death right then and there, but he restrained himself since he needed him to finish the task at hand. _And besides,_ Hibari thought as he angrily straightened the papers in his hand, _why are people even pairing me up with Tsunayoshi? We're_ both males _, for god's sake._

The young heir now closed his eyes as he felt his irritation arise. He really had enough of those misunderstandings, and hoped that the one with the dark-brunette herbivore was the last.

... .. .

But as fate would have it, that didn't end up the last.

On the Monday afternoon of the next week, as Hibari was working in the reception room alone, Tsuna already dismissed for he had nothing left for him to do, a far too familiar and irksome laugh suddenly filled his office. Cold, white mist slowly materialized in front of his desk then, and revealed with its passing a blue-haired male with a trident in hishand.

Hibari immediately took his tonfas out and stood up. He glared at the trespasser.

 _Rokudo Mukuro._ "What are you doing in my school?" The prefect demanded.

"Hmm? Oya, Oya, what kind of greeting is that?" Mukuro asked with an amused smile. Hibari intensified his glare. "I didn't mean to intrude. I just wanted to see my dear Chrome, but got lost, you can say, on my way to her," the blue-haired explained with a few dramatic hand gestures. "That's why I ended up here, _unknowingly_."

Hibari scowled at the obvious lie before he lunged at Mukuro. The latter easily deflected the attack with his trident, causing Hibari to jump back behind his desk.

"You know, I heard something interesting from Chrome yesterday, about you and Sawada Tsunayoshi," Mukuro baited before he paused. His wry smile widened when he saw Hibari still to listen. "She told me how you two had a… strange relationship over bondage. I never could have imagined the both of you having that kind of inclination, though," he paused again to laugh his peculiar laugh, "if it's you, then it really isn't a surprise _at all_."

The skylark attacked again. Mukuro blocked. Hibari kicked. The illusionist impeded the attack once more. With his close combat moves proven to be ineffective for now, Hibari widened the distance between them and released his chains, enclosing it securely around Mukuro's trident. He then yanked, but the illusionist saw through his plan and purposely released his hold as he pulled, making him lost his balance. Mukuro then took this chance to swiftly punch Hibari on the face—only for it to be block by a tonfa.

The blue-haired smirked, before he moved back from Hibari and plucked his trident from the loosened chains. He nursed for a bit his probably cracked fingers. "Oya, oya, you're really sensitive. I'm sure anyone who would've heard will realize that it's all just a misunderstanding. Well, on another note," Mukuro stopped to evade a fast-moving chain, "there's another thing I heard, but this time from a former Arcobaleno. It seems that you two were ordered to form some kind of bond, and—"

Mukuro abruptly sprinted towards Hibari, and soon the sounds of metal clashing against metal filled the once-silent room. Their weapons then caught with each other—faces snarled close—a standstill **—** "isn't such an arrangement the perfect way for me to finally defeat Sawada Tsunayoshi? To earn his absolute trust and then stab his back using it—I can even use the bond to take that revenge on the Mafia, and maybe start the third world war, by using my old plan of possessing his body."

Hibari's eyes turned deathly cold at the last line, and quickly he let go of his tonfas in favor of using his hands to balance himself when he leg sweep a surprised Mukuro.

The blue-haired fell—hard—on the marble floor. But he was able to roll to his side as a tonfa lodged itself on the ground where he once was. He stood up unsteadily next, barely missing another tonfa strike as he jumped back from the enraged skylark.

 _Hm?_ Mukuro touched his cheek, and smelled first before he saw the familiar red of blood. He smirked darkly at the sight. "Don't you think we're similar?"

Hibari narrowed his eyes. He wanted to attack again, but held himself back. He could feel something different from Mukuro, could no longer feel the latter's desire to fight—actually, he barely felt it in the beginning—"What are you trying to say?"

Mukuro never left his gaze on the smear of red on his black glove. "I also hate to admit the fact, actually—but it may also be the reason why we hate each other so much, because we could see, _sense_ , the annoying similarities in the other." He rubbed the two blood-coated fingers together, not at all minding the intensified glare from the confounded skylark. "We're both the most distant from him, from Sawada Tsunayoshi, our supposed to be Sky."

He continued to rub his fingers, feeling the density of the iron-scented blood between them. "So shouldn't I also have a right to form a strong bond with him? Or at the very least, form a much better connection than what we already have?"

Hibari stared at Mukuro. He couldn't tell if the Mist Guardian was really sincere or if he was just feigning it, but there was one thing he was sure—they both had lost the will to fight.

"Tell me then, Rokudo Mukuro," the skylark began after he had turned to his side, to stare up beyond the reception room's window at the orange sky, "what do you think of Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

Mukuro finally looked up from his gloved fingers. It was now his turn to stare at the Cloud Guardian. He actually wanted to snort and mock at the melancholy Hibari was showing, but found himself couldn't. _Why are we being so honest today?_ "…kind, Sawada Tsunayoshi is much too kind, and accepting," he finally answered with a frown. The brunette had accepted them after all—criminals— _they_ who had deceived and killed for their own benefit, and would readily do it again if needed. "He is a fool too, a very _naïve_ fool."

"Then, if what you said is true, that we are alike, then you must have realized it too," Hibari said as he placed a hand on the windowsill, his gaze, after it was distracted by the slow moving clouds, refocused on the far too welcoming sky.

"That we don't deserve someone like him."

Mukuro tightened his hold on his trident, and stared at the raven-haired's back. His frowned deepened. "How about you then?" he asked. Hibari remained staring outside. "What do you think of Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"…" The skylark finally removed his sight from the sky. However, he still didn't face Mukuro, and only lowered his head. Memories from those days were replaying in his mind. "…he's nothing but a weak herbivore," he answered, his voice a bit distant. He narrowed his eyes then. "But, when the need arises, he can be incredibly strong."

The sly smirk swiftly returned to Mukuro's lips. "Is that all?"

Hibari upped his defense at the playful tone. He glared at the blue-haired. "What do you mean?"

Still smiling, the illusionist sat down on the armrest of the empty green couch. "I'd done a great deal of research on Sawada Tsunayoshi before we had met. And during that time, I learned some very interesting things," Mukuro paused, to meet with his heterochromatic eyes the angry gaze of the skylark, "about him, you, and _them_."

Hibari predictably lunged at the other male—and in a split second his left tonfa was against the blue-haired's neck. He would've finished Mukuro if the latter hadn't move his trident at the same time and pointed it on Hibari's own neck.

"You know, bonds, no matter how shallow they are, can make you strong, make you want to live—" Mukuro spoke as if there was nothing against his throat, "I didn't went through six lives learning nothing. But, at the same time, in just a blink of an eye, these bonds can become astonishingly fragile." Hibari gritted his teeth. He pushed his metal tonfa harder against Mukuro's neck. The illusionist retaliated by inching his trident closer to Hibari's skin, piercing it. "With just one wrong slip, one wrong move—"

With effort, Hibari spun his left tonfa and smashed it on the side of Mukuro's head. The trident cut him deeply in turn, but the skylark didn't mind the injury. He instead immediately followed the attack with a kick to the blue-haired's stomach—but irritatingly enough, Mukuro wasn't that disoriented to not block the strike. Hibari stepped back.

"With just one wrong word, these supposedly unbreakable bonds shatter, and then become the source of a great disaster." Mukuro faced to the side to spit out some blood. He wiped with his gloved hand any remaining trace of the liquid off his lips. "I don't think you know this, but since that day he defeated me, Sawada Tsunayoshi's mind and mine became connected. Though the link is not as strong as Chrome's, so telepathic communications are impossible, I can, at the very least, feel his mind." He turned to the skylark, his smile no longer bearing any mirth. "And curiously, when I first visited that head of his, I felt part of his memories are blocked, strongly too."

Hibari glared at him. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Everything crumbles in time," Mukuro answered indirectly, his face now strangely serious. "Just like my connection with him now that my real body is back. And I don't know why, but the last time I visited his mind, I felt whatever it was that's blocking a part of his memories is rapidly crumbling." He then paused, his wry smile suddenly creeping back. Hibari narrowed his eyes in turn. "Maybe your bonding thing is actually having some kind of effect? And now surely, the only thing needed is a trigger, and then, Sawada Tsunayoshi will finally recall everything."

For the last time, the skylark attacked. Mukuro was able to block it with his trident, but instead of retreating back after the unsuccessful strike, Hibari pressed on, willing to make the illusionist submit with sheer strength. "I'll ask you again, Rokudo Mukuro," Hibari said, angry blue-gray eyes staring down at amused heterochromatic ones, "why are you telling me all of this?"

"Then let met repeat what I said earlier, Hibari Kyoya," Mukuro replied, tone mocking, " _everything_ crumbles in time. Even strong bonds like yours, and you _know_ it."

All too suddenly—Hibari felt strangely _cold_ , his body—heavy, and for whatever unfathomable reason—he _couldn't_ move.

Mukuro now smiled darkly at the impact of his words. He then stepped back, and almost immediately white mist began covering his entire being. "I guess it's about time for me to go," he announced. Hibari could only stare at him in anger and confusion. "Kufufufu, you'll realize soon enough what happened to yourself, Hibari Kyoya," the rapidly disappearing illusionist disclosed, his voice strangely echoing throughout the room. "And when you do, do know that I'm happily waiting for the day you both crumble, the day when I can finally defeat _him_."


	15. Interval VII

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s): Ep. 20 / Ch. 63 & 81 **(*followed the manga version more on this interval)

 **Author's note:** Next update will be on Friday or Saturday.

... .. .

 **Interval VII: Remember, cherry blossoms**

"Do you wish to die in your seat?" After a thorough investigation—and before that, quite a number of his men defeated, students of his school incapacitated—and then biting to death the weak herbivores that so much as _dared_ to defy him, Kyoya finally found the ringleader of the soon-to-be-ended mischief.

The instigator, barely discernible in the darkness of the badly dilapidated room, laughed. "Kufufufu. What interesting things you say. I'm sitting down since there's no need for me to stand."

"…" Kyoya narrowed his eyes at the shadowed ringleader. He didn't came there for a discussion—he was there for a fight. "I'm going to stop talking to you."

"Suit yourself," the ringleader responded. "It's just that if you don't talk now, you may never get the chance to do so again."

Without warning or any noticeable reason at all—Kyoya felt _sick_. What's more, the symptoms felt irritatingly familiar.

"Hmm? You're breaking into a sweat, now what could possibly be wrong?" the ringleader asked in obvious false worry.

The prefect immediately glared at him. "Shut up." He could hardly stand up properly.

"I was just worried about you, that's all," the ringleader continued with his faux concern. Kyoya began to sway horribly. "Come on now, pull yourself together."

 _If only I can!_ The prefect continued to move sideways unsteadily—and if it weren't for his will and quick reflexes, he would've fallen down on the wooden floor.

"Hello, I'm over here," the ringleader called when the raven-haired wasn't facing him anymore. Kyoya didn't mind him—he was too preoccupied with the realization of the cause of his sudden sickness, why it was so annoyingly familiar— _but it can't be—the season for those is already over!_ He turned to the ringleader then, and as if he heard his confusion, the instigator smirked and revealed, "I had to import them from overseas." In the darkness, Kyoya could perceive a button being pushed.

"Kufufufu. You really are weak against them, aren't you?"

 _Ah—_

"To these beautiful _sakura_."

Kyoya could finally see the reason for his sudden illness with the switched on lights. In anger and frustration then, he knelt down—no longer able to fight the effects of the powerful sakura-kura disease.

And as he now stared up at the mass of blooming flowers above, his body getting weaker as the seconds ticked by, another emotion slowly welled up inside the raven-haired—

 _Why did it have to be cherry blossoms?_

... .. .

Maybe because in their country, _sakura_ symbolizes clouds, that he—the would-be Cloud Guardian of a certain Famiglia—his _life_ , was inevitably linked to the ephemeral flowers of the cherry trees.

Kyoya now gazed up at one of the _sakura_ trees near their school, its hallmark pink blossoms stripped away by the seasons, and was this time replaced by yellowing autumn leaves.

He never really liked cherry blossoms in the first place. Back then, the flowers had reminded him of his father's death—since as though it wanted to attest to his parent's end, the _sakura_ trees bloomed early, _far_ too early—and so became horrifyingly beautiful observers of the end of his beloved father.

But then, Tsuna changed all that. After their parting, the trees became constant reminders of his happier times with his best friend—how they met during spring with the trees still strangely blooming, passed underneath its branches filled with small cherries on their way to the summer festival, fed Isamu below the yellowing leaves during his last days with them, and lastly, played often together in the snow beside the then-dormant trees.

He never thought the cherry blossoms would be spectators too to their reunion, _but—_

"Chairman, if we don't hurry up, we'll miss the baseball team's autumn game!"

Kyoya closed his eyes, and let out a breath. "The team will surely win, Kusakabe. So we don't really need to hurry, or even watch, since we already know the outcome." Blue-gray eyes then stared again at the cherry tree before it. After he had accepted that Tsuna could no longer remember him nor the days they had shared, it became difficult once more for Kyoya to look at the fragile blossoms. And after that humiliating defeat—Kyoya was now sure that he won't be able to tolerate anymore the flowers that had became witnesses to how he lost the most important things in his life.

It was too much for him to be reminded of; and as he headed now to the field where the tournament was taking place, Kyoya wondered—that if the day would ever come when he would be able to look at the cherry blossoms properly again.


	16. Chapter 8: False hope

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's note:** Umm, well… dear readers, I just want to ask, and I'll be glad if some of you can answer me, so—are any of you annoyed with the delayed updates? Or are you okay with it?

Also, I said last update that this would be up yesterday, but am only able to post it today, so - yeah, sorry about that… (-_- )/

 **Other notes:**

 _ **Otona**_ – Japanese for "adult"

 _ **Shipu-atama**_ – tail-head

... .. .

 **Chapter 8: False hope**

With tears gathered at the corners of his closed eyes, Tsuna yawned.

"Hey, that's your third time already." The brunette blinked twice sleepily before he gazed at the girl seated across from him. _Why is she at my house again?_ "Third time what?"

"Yawning," Hana answered with a frown. She then rested her crossed arms on the dining table and leaned forward. "Isn't it bad manners to yawn before food? Even if it's breakfast, you should respect more the food your mother made for you."

"It's fine, Hana-chan!" Nana said as she entered the scene and placed individual plates of grilled fish on the table. "Tsu-kun stayed up all night yesterday helping out Lambo, so he's still sleepy. On the other hand," the brunette mother faced Hana then, and placed a worried hand on her right cheek, "are you sure that tea is enough for you? I can ready some breakfast for you too, you know."

Hana smiled politely. "Don't worry Nana-san, this is enough. My mom actually made me eat before I left, so I'm still full."

"Well, okay then," Nana said, still concerned. "When you get hungry, don't hesitate to tell me, ne?"

" _Hai_ ," Hana answered. Nana smiled in response, before she returned to the kitchen to make some more breakfast.

"…what?" Hana asked with a raised eyebrow when she finally turned back to Tsuna. The latter was staring at her with his own brows deeply furrowed.

"Well—I mean, no, it's nothing…" Tsuna dismissed. He had noted as he quietly watched the two earlier how it seemed like they knew each other—but quickly brushed the thought aside, since that was most unlikely. "Anyway," he said after he yawned for the fourth time, his drowsy eyes only noticing then that Hana's dark, wavy hair was tied to the side in a low ponytail, "aside from what Kaa-san said, I wouldn't be so sleepy if you didn't come here so early in the morning, Kurokawa."

"Well of course I have to get here early!" Hana exclaimed with a slap of her palm on the table, causing Tsuna to finally wake. "This is a rare opportunity after all! That's why I need to use as much of today as I can to be with him! Besides," she paused and sat back, crossing her arms again as she glared at the boy before her, "you're the one who forgot and slept in."

Tsuna's cheeks immediately reddened when he recalled how he opened the door for the girl in his flower-patterned boxers (he couldn't recall how he got that) and shirt. He was still in a daze then from waking up so early, not to mention his sleep-deprived mind had thought that Gokudera or Yamamoto could be the only ones behind the closed door. In panic and embarrassment, he had left Hana at the door and ran up to his room, before he returned a surprised Natsu in his ring form and dressed appropriately as fast as he could.

Now focusing his eyes on his breakfast so that he could ignore (unsuccessfully) Hana's angry glare, Tsuna asked weakly, "So… um, who are we talking about again?"

A vein popped on Hana's forehead. "Lambo! Otona Lambo!"

 _Ah—that's right, she threatened me yesterday after school to let her see him_. Tsuna let out a tired sigh. "Then, mind if I ask, Kurokawa, but didn't you already given up on him? It's been so long, after all. So why the sudden interest again?"

A smirk suddenly found its way on Hana's lips, and Tsuna held back another sigh for the swift change of emotion, or for the smugness behind the smirk. "I haven't given up on him you know. After all, mature guys like him are rare now these days."

 _Uh-huh, mature,_ Tsuna thought sarcastically as he took a piece of fish meat and began to eat his traditional Japanese breakfast. He decided to stay quiet and let Hana continue.

"Although, even if I said that," the girl now set her elbows on table and laced her fingers together, before resting her chin on interlocked digits, "since I hadn't seen him for so long, I began to lose hope. _But_ ," Hana closed her eyes then, red blush blooming on her cheeks, "just the day before yesterday, I met him! We didn't actually talk, but as if an apology for not being able to speak to each other, he gave me these candies and smiled at me before he walked away!" She now placed her cold hands on her hot cheeks, to settle down her blush. "Just as I was giving up on him, he appeared and gave me hope! Doesn't that mean I should go for him?"

 _No—not really. And Adult Lambo was most likely just giving you the candies he didn't like, and the smile was maybe something like an apology for that!_ Tsuna stayed quiet and continued eating his breakfast.

Hana rested her arms on the table again and carried on. "Well, that's the reason why I'm going to ask him out for a date today and tomorrow. I'll also won't take no for an answer."

"Eh—" Tsuna finally decided to speak. "If you're going out on a date today, then why tomorrow too?"

The girl raised an eyebrow once more. "…because tomorrow is a special day."

Tsuna tilt his head to the side and scrunched up his own brows. "What's so special about tomorrow?"

For a few seconds, Hana stared at the brunette across from her. She then sighed and decided not to answer the rather oblivious boy. "Anyway, I'm sure a lot of girls would like to go out with him since he's such a cool and mature guy! That's another reason why I want to secure his weekends!"

"Really now…" _Girls sure are fierce,_ Tsuna thought as he remembered another fierce dark brunette with tied-up hair as their default hairstyle. He was glad his crush was on the gentler side.

"So when am I going to meet him?"

"Eh—" Tsuna dropped his chopsticks in surprise. He then looked at Hana, who was now glaring pointedly at him. He sweat-dropped. "W-Well, you see, he—"

"Maman, what's for breakfast? Lambo-san's hungry!"

 _Speak of the devil._

"Lambo too loud!"

"Gyahaha, try and catch me, _Shipu-atama_!"

"Lambo, it's too early to play! And you might—eh, Kurokawa Hana?"

 _Geh_. Hana narrowed her eyes at the three kids staring curiously at her at the entryway, still in pajamas.

The tallest one turned to Tsuna. "What's she doing here, Tsuna-nii?"

The older brother smiled weakly at his not-really younger sibling. He could feel Hana's intense glare was back to him. "You see, Fuuta, Kurokawa wants to—"

"Another girl, Tsuna?" Bianchi now came into view. She then stood with arms crossed behind the three kids, still in her pajamas too. "How about Haru and Kyoko?"

Tsuna didn't even blush when he stood up and retaliated. "She's just a classmate!"

"Well," this time, Hana was the one who stood up. Everyone was silent as they watch her bow her head towards Bianchi and the children. "Nice to meet you, my name's Kurokawa Hana, just a classmate of Sawada Tsunayoshi here." After that, she turned to Tsuna, her polite smile visibly twitching. "Since they're going to eat their breakfast here, how about I wait in your room, Tsunayoshi-san?"

 _T-Tsunayoshi-san?_ Tsuna stared confusedly at Hana, whose plastered smile kept on twitching. When he noticed the first few hives though, he finally remembered the girl's _hate_ for children. "Ah—right! Alright! You still know the way to my room, ne?"

"Yeah," Hana breathed out uneasily. She was beginning to lose control of her composure. "Excuse me then."

And so, after the guest finally went upstairs and everyone settled in their seats, Nana came to the table with the plates of extra grilled fish and cooked vegetables. "So what's this about Haru-chan and Kyoko-chan I heard about, Tsu-kun?"

The boy being questioned only groaned a tired sigh as an answer. Bianchi couldn't help but smile.

... .. .

"So where is he?" It wasn't until thirty minutes later when Tsuna at last went up to his room, and he hadn't even fully opened the door when Hana threw him the impatient question.

He decided not to comment on it, and just quietly closed the door before he answered. "W-Well, umm, Otona Lambo said he'd take a bath first. He didn't take one last night, since he stayed up all night doing… something, see, you heard earlier from Kaa-san how I stayed up all night helping him, right?" _Well, helping clearing up a video game level, that is_ , "that's why he's going to have one now so that he wouldn't smell bad when he meets you," Tsuna finished, and, of course, everything was all a lie. Lambo was still downstairs, eating, refusing to do anything else until he had his fill. _And I even promised him a whole month's worth of grape candies for turning into his fifteen-year old self._

The brunette wearily listened to Hana talk about how considerate Lambo was then, her love-stricken face still a strange one for him to see compared to the usual ones she wore. When she finished overpraising his adult Lightning Guardian, the girl turned to his short cabinet and started browsing the books on top of it.

 _Girls in love are somewhat easy to fool huh…_ he absentmindedly thought.

"Ne, Sawada," Hana suddenly began, causing Tsuna to stand straight up. _D-D-Did I said that out loud?_ the brunette asked himself before he watched Hana anxiously, still browsing the books, her back to him. "Do you still have that yearbook from kindergarten?"

The boy blinked. "Kindergarten?" he repeated in a surprised tone. "I do… but it's hidden deep inside my closet. Why… are you looking for it, Kurokawa?"

"Hmm?" Hana traced the spines of the books. "Well, I just want to check something there."

Tsuna furrowed his brows. An awful thought abruptly entered his mind, and he decided to voice it out. "W-W-Wait, you're not thinking of using that yearbook to blackmail me, right?"

The dark-haired girl wanted to laugh, but managed to restrain herself. "That's a nice thought, but I really just want to check something," she said as she turned to face him. "Since mine got lost when my mom cleaned my room."

"E-Eh—" Tsuna was yet again surprised. "… Kurokawa has the same yearbook?"—was what he only managed to figure out. His mind was still too shock to process the implications of the girl's words.

"What, don't you remember?" Hana asked with a small smile, her dark-colored eyes tinged—hinted—with wistfulness. "We were classmates."

Tsuna ruffled his hair. "R-Really?" _We were?_ He then looked down on the floor, his momentarily unmoving hand still on his brown locks. He now found it a bit odd—on how he could barely remember anything at all about his kindergarten days as he search for any memories of that time with Hana, when he could recall just enough of his days before that. With eyebrows drawn together then, for the strangeness of his memories and for feeling apologetic, he stared up at Hana. "Sorry, Kurokowa, but—I… can't remember…"

Hana turned around, fingers interlaced behind her as she returned to browsing the books. The titles didn't register in her mind. "Don't worry, I understand, since it's been already eight, no—nine years?" she reassured. Though, even such a long time had already passed, the memories of that one year were still clear to her.

And Hana knew it wasn't only to her.

"Gyahahaha—" Without warning or whatsoever, the wooden door banged open—revealing a cow-suited five-year old. "—Lambo-san makes his appearance again!" And like it was a matter of course, Tsuna was standing beside the aforementioned door and got himself unluckily slammed.

Hana instantly felt her eye twitch at the appearance of the annoying cow.

'Oi, Lambo! Didn't I tell you to turn into your older self before coming here?!' Tsuna whispered angrily and desperately after he crouched down to the child's level. He could feel Hana's angry stare piercing him again.

"Give Lambo-san his candy first!" the child outrageously demanded with an outstretched hand. Tsuna sat up and stared at the greedy cow, clearly miffed, but still gave in just seconds later. He took the lollipop he seized from the fridge then and dropped it to the expectant hand.

Lambo was not pleased. "A lollipop?! You said you're going to give me grape candies!" he cried, though he still took the treat. "Lambo-san won't— _oi!_ " Lambo shouted again, but this time to I-Pin—who suddenly jumped out from the doorway and swiftly took the multi-colored candy.

"Give Lambo-san's lolillop back, _Shipu-atama_!"

"No! Payment stolen candy yesterday!"

"Whaaat? That was clearly Lambo-san's!"

"No! Not! Maman gave that to I-Pin but Lambo steal!"

"Well that's because you were so slow in eating it!"

Hana was finally near her limit.

"Sawada!" she snapped angrily. The brunette immediately stood up from the call. He was too afraid to face her though. Hana resolved this by forcing him to turn around and grabbing furiously the collar of his shirt. "Where's Otona Lambo?! I've waited for an hour already since I came here! If you don't bring here him now, I'll definitely tell Kyoko how you're _picking_ between her and Miura Haru!"

"W-Wait, that's all just a misunderstanding!" Tsuna explained. "A-And about Otona Lambo…" _he's actually already here_ , he mentally added as he stared down at the cloud of fighting children on the floor. He turned back to Hana. "M-Maybe he's having a hard time picking clothes?" he offered lamely.

Hana didn't buy it. "Bring. Him. Out. _Now._ If you don't, I'll call Kyo—"—all of a sudden, Hana's hairstyle came undone—the low ponytail that took her _more than an hour_ to do. The two surprised teens then turned their heads to the right, at the thing that came flying and sliced the tie holding the girl's hair.

On the wall was a compass with its needle point lodged deeply on the wall, most probably thrown by one of the children who had decided to chuck things at each other.

Tsuna immediately thought of storing the drawing tool somewhere where the kids couldn't find it.

Hana, on the other hand, finally had enough.

"I'll definitely remember this, Sawada," Hana said after she let go of Tsuna, her body shaking in anger. She ignored Lambo's shout of "shoo-shoo-hag" when he finally recognized her with her usual hairstyle. "And I'll definitely come back tomorrow! So make sure to bring out Otona Lambo or I'll tell _everything_ to Kyoko!"

"Eh, but—wait, Kurokawa—"

Hana didn't pay any attention to him anymore and slammed the door shut.

Tsuna wanted to cry. _What am I going to do if Lambo is like this again tomorrow? Not to mention Adult Lambo can only be here for five minutes! What—_

"Little animal."

The brunette opened his eyes he had closed. He then removed his hands from his messed up hair and turned around, shocked to see the head prefect of his school perched on his windowsill. "Hi—Hibari-san?! W-W-What are you doing here?"

"The infant called me," Hibari answered as he removed himself from the sill in favor of standing up in the room.

Tsuna was speechless for a moment. "R-Reborn?" _Come to think of it, where is he?_ He only noticed now as he searched for the hitman that the he hadn't seen him from the moment he woke up. He was too preoccupied with Hana, and since Reborn told him last night that he didn't have morning training, he wasn't really alarmed when he wasn't woke up Vongola-style earlier.

Panic now began to arise inside the brunette at the still missing tutor—Reborn's absence last time was the start of a long battle to save the future after all, and for a moment Tsuna thought if something like that was about to happen again—until, though still distressed but at least a little relieved, he saw a white envelope resting on his study table. Quickly he grabbed it, tore the paper container and read the letter inside—and soon after he wished he hadn't.

 _Dear Dame-Tsuna,_

 _You must have only noticed when Hibari came that I'm gone._

 _Actually, I went out last night after you slept to research more effective ways of training you, since you haven't been making much progress lately. So I asked Hibari to come so that he could spar with you this weekend._

 _And don't even think that you can skip this training with your Cloud—this will be part of your bonding, and if I found out that you didn't spar with him at all, I'll triple the regimen of whatever totur—training I'll find._

 _With lots of love,_

 _Reborn._

 _P.S. No special moves or Vongola Animal Rings when you spar. Only fists, feet, gloves, and tonfas. Flames are fine too, but only for strengthening and mobility._

Tsuna could only stare at the letter for a few seconds before his mind finally reacted. _He—He was about to write torture then, wasn't he?!_ _He didn't even erase his mistake!_ _And why did he ask Hibari-san, of all people?!_ And then—just then, Tsuna remembered Hibari was just right behind him. So slowly, and very much reluctantly, he turned around, and instantly paled at the sight of a murderous glare.

" _Where is he?_ " the skylark demanded. "And do you know why he told me to come here?"

"R-R-Reborn didn't tell you?" Tsuna immediately hid the letter behind him. _If I'm going to spar with him, then let it be tomorrow! I still want to get some sleep!_ He then gave Hibari an awkward smile. "U-Umm… Reborn is unfortunately out for the whole day today, so why don't come back tomorrow, Hibari-san?" he suggested.

The skylark answered him with a more fearsome glare.

Tsuna sweat-dropped, and cursed at the unnerving silence. _Eh—wait, silence?_ He immediately turned to the two children fighting not too long ago, and his eyes immediately bulged out at the sight of the countdown on I-Pin's forehead go down to three.

 _Damn it! I forgot I-Pin's Pinzu-timed bomb activates when she sees Hibari-san!_ —quickly then, Tsuna grabbed the human bomb and threw her out of the window, and soon after a loud explosion bursted in the morning sky, causing everything nearby to quake briefly.

"T-That was a close one…" he said after a sigh of relief. He slid down to the floor next, and almost immediately another problem presented itself.

"LA—LAMBO-SAN'S LOLLIPOP!" the five-year old cried. Lambo then took out the ten-year bazooka, and in sadness and frustration for his lost treat he ran, tripped, and lost consciousness from the impact he had with the wall. But at the same time he collided with the hard concrete—Lambo somehow managed to pull the purple bazooka's trigger. The weapon flew backwards a fraction of a second after, and before he could react—

Tsuna was hit.

... .. .

"Oi, wait—those tickets are mine!" Around the same time, inside an arcade, Gokudera was shouting at Yamamoto for taking his hard-won prize tickets. The silver-haired took it back by force.

"C'mon, don't be so angry, Gokudera. I'm just counting how much you won," Yamamoto explained. The silver-haired distrustfully hid the tickets in his pockets. "Because if you got around a hundred, then we can buy that box of chocolate candies."

"Geh, as if I want to spend these on _that_ ," Gokudera spat. "And why do you want that anyway?"

Yamamoto grinned. "That's because it's Valentine's Day tomorrow!"

Gokudera raised a silver brow. "Yeah, so?"

"Well… it's Valentine's Day tomorrow?" Yamamoto repeated. He then rested the back of his head on his joined hands. "Also, I'm planning on hanging out with Tsuna tomorrow, that's why I thought I should bring something since it's Valentine's."

"Like hell I would let you use _my_ tickets to buy a gift and make you look good before the Neo Primo!" Gokudera fumed. The raven-haired's smile widened at the expected reaction. "Then why don't you come along too? We can both look good in front of Tsuna, hang out, and have fun! And it's not like we'll only use your tickets—I'll share some of mine too."

Gokudera clicked his tongue at the suggestion. He then showed his back to his fellow Guardian. "I already planned on hanging out with Neo Primo tomorrow, you baseball-freak. You just said it first."

Yamamoto just smiled and let the lie slide.

... .. .

Back to Tsuna's room, clouds of pink smoke floated around the area where the brunette once was, hiding the person transported from the future behind the thick fume. Slowly, the smoke eventually cleared, and Hibari's blue-gray eyes widened then at the man in the black suit standing before him.

Gone were the big, doe-like eyes, replaced now by smaller, sharper ones. The older brunette was also nearly a head taller than him, prompting Hibari to think how tall he would be ten years from now. But that short, unruly haired remained, the kindness in his eyes too, even that warm smile.

"Kyoya."

And then Hibari immediately understood.

"Tsunayoshi…" Still, he wanted to confirm. So he gazed at the familiar caramel-brown eyes, and asked with his own eyes, in silence.

The older Tsuna nodded. _Yes. I remembered._

The skylark's eyes softened. He couldn't help the small smile his lips formed then, the joy he began to feel. How long had it been since he last called out his name?

Seconds later he hit the older Tsuna with his tonfa.

" _Itai_ —what was that for, Kyoya?!" the older brunette asked as he cupped his not-so swollen cheek. He quietly cursed himself for being too lax around his Cloud.

"For that ridiculous plan you had with the ten years older me and that other herbivore, Tsunayoshi," Hibari explained as he put away his tonfas.

The older Tsuna stared at him incredulously. "Tha—But that was ages ago!" he exclaimed, pain in his cheek now forgotten. "So you mean you held a grudge against it all this time?!"

Hibari swiftly glared at the older man. "You could've _died_ ," he snarled, "the bullet could've malfunctioned, _you_ could've stayed asleep, never to wake up again, and the Tsunayoshi of this time could have been killed by that Byakuran."

To the skylark's understandable irritation, the older brunette blinked once, twice—thrice before he suddenly burst out into loud laughter.

Hibari crossed his arms. " _What?_ "

"No—just, the Kyoya of my time said the same thing, and _did_ the same thing to me—and it hurt a lot more, mind you—when I came back to the base." The older Tsuna then chuckled. "I'm now guessing he only agreed to the plan since it's the only choice we had left. And really, Kyoya—" Tsuna paused, to lock gazes with his still annoyed and younger Cloud. "I'm sorry." His smile widened. "I just sometimes forgot how much you can worry, and hold grudges too. But everything went fine, ne?"

Hibari didn't respond, and with the apology his irritation immediately subsided—it didn't felt like the older brunette was _only_ saying sorry for making him worry, but also for another, bigger reason. He suddenly felt uneasy, and the melancholy he could now see in those caramel-brown eyes made him even more so.

And then, this time, the older Tsuna's smile turned a shade bittersweet. He held firmly the skylark's gaze. "Ne, Kyoya, can I hold your hand?"

Eyes widened a fraction at the request, and immediately memories of the past began to touch Hibari's mind. He next watched the other male held out his right hand, before quietly, Hibari shortened the distanced between them and held the hand with his own.

"It's cold," the older Tsuna commented, his saddened smile widening. He held the smaller hand tighter. "Just like that day."

A darkened sky, the falling rain, and the sight of his family's grave came to the raven-haired's mind—and he knew, that that was the day the older Tsuna was talking about. That he was remembering it too. Hibari squeezed the hand back.

"Kyoya," the older Tsuna called, near a whisper, making Hibari tore his gaze from their connected hands to stare back at the other's eyes.

"My five minutes is almost up, so I'll make this as short as possible," the older brunette began, "I… _I_ may have remembered, but please—" he paused, to steady his trembling lips, "don't hope."

When Hibari only furrowed his brows in confusion, the older Tsuna smiled back and explained. "You do know how the future changes with each decision we make, right? How it forks and creates parallel worlds with each of those decisions." He stared at their hands. "I may have come from this world's future, but a time may come when you two— _we_ —make a decision that would make me _not_ remember. I have seen, on the few instances I was hit with the bazooka, a few parallel worlds like that. There was even one, when I did remember, but we never went back to how we were."

Another pause, and the older Tsuna couldn't help but narrow his eyes at the bitter memories. He looked up again at his younger best friend. "That's why Kyoya, even if this—really selfish request is too much, especially because it's you, if—if I don't remember, if we never go back to how we once were," the older brunette squeezed Hibari's hand tighter, " _please—_ "

And then pink smoke exploded where the older Tsuna had been.

Hibari immediately withdrew his hand from the fume, clenching it, saving the last bit of warmth the older Tsuna's hand had given him. He then noticed a white piece of paper on the floor, and almost hesitatingly, he picked it up.

"E-Eh? Hi—Hibari-san?" the younger Tsuna called as the smoke finally cleared. He sighed in relief. "A-At last, I'm back." He next laughed awkwardly. "A-Actually, I was a bit alarmed when I got to the future. I was in this unfamiliar room, an office maybe, all alone and—Hieee!" Tsuna promptly screamed when he saw the paper in Hibari's hand. It was most definitely his demon tutor's letter.

"Herbivore," Hibari addressed as he turned to the brunette. Strangely, the latter didn't shriek or flinch in fear—Tsuna felt something was off. "We're going to start this… _training_ immediately after I finish my patrol. So you better be ready when I come back."

"Huh?"

"I won't repeat myself." After he delivered his words, Hibari swiftly walked past the stunned Tsuna, jumped out of the second-storey window, and landed expertly on the ground below. He heard the brunette's familiar scream a second later, but the skylark couldn't find in himself to smirk and be satisfied at his own teasing.

Not after what the older Tsuna had failed—but nonetheless Hibari had understood—to say.

" _Please—"_

"Kyoya-kun."

Hibari stopped in his tracks. There was only one person he knew who called him like that.

"What is it, Nana-san?" he asked, but didn't dare to turn around and face the brunette mother. He was afraid what she might see in his eyes right now.

Nana didn't mind. "Reborn told me that you were coming for a visit, so I made your share of the lunch. Why don't you stay and eat?"

For a few short seconds, no words came out of Hibari's parted lips when he tried to reply. "…I'm sorry," he finally declined as he turned his head towards her a bit, "but I still have to patrol. I won't be back until after lunch—to pick your son up, so I'll just eat at the school, since I also have some work to do there too."

Nana let out a sigh. "If it's like that, then I guess it can't be helped." She stared at the skylark's broad back next, and her eyes narrowed softly when she remembered how small and delicate it once was. It still looked a bit fragile to her, to be honest. "Ne, Kyoya-kun, I heard that you and Tsu-kun are spending part of your days together again. I want to say thank you, for doing so, and also—" Nana paused, and slowly, she inclined her head, even if Hibari couldn't see, "I'm sorry, for not telling him anything about your past even after he's already fine."

She straightened up. "Tsu-kun, he—he was really hurt when you left, but I'm not blaming you for what happened to him, Kyoya-kun. I'm the one who's just too afraid to tell him anything, since if I do, I'm worried something bad will happen again," Nana confessed. "And even if I _do_ want him to remember, I'm too afraid to hurt him to say anything. I'm sorry."

 _"And now surely, the only thing needed is a trigger, and then, Sawada Tsunayoshi will finally recall everything."_

Hibari refocused his gaze on the green grass. He redirected it then to the part of the houses visible beyond the gray walls, to the sky seeable between the dwellings. "No, you don't have to apologize, Nana-san, since we all feel the same. We all don't want to hurt him any further."

 _"I may have come from this world's future, but a time may come when you two—_ we _—make a decision that would make me_ not _remember. I have seen, on the few instances I was hit with the bazooka, a few parallel worlds like that."_

The prefect began to walk towards the gate. "Also, I just want to say this, but even if Tsunayoshi won't remember, Nana-san, I—"

 _"If—if I don't remember, if we never go back to how we once were,_ please— _"_

"I don't plan on leaving his side ever again."

 _"Just forget about me."_


	17. Interval VIII

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s): (mentioned only) Ep. 42/ Ch. 95**

 **Author's note:** I honestly believe that I'm really, really lucky to have such understanding readers! Thank you. I guess I'm really stressing myself too much, and I remembered one of the readers, Yukionna13, said last time not to do that too! (...and then ended up forgetting what was said and stressed like there's no tomorrow...)

So, for this to be easier for me, updates will be a bit sporadic for now, I guess? - at the very least, expect an update once or twice a week, though I don't know which day/s. Do expect also of a week without any updates, but never again two weeks of nothing - I'll end up worrying too much for keeping you guys waiting even though you already said it's okay (that's just the kind of person I am, sadly -_- )

A big thank you again to everyone and 'til the next chapter!

... .. .

 **Interval VIII: Those left behind**

It was just before they went to another ridiculous fight, that Hana managed to corner two of her childhood friends.

It was raining then.

"Are you going to another fight?!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed, particularly to her best friend's older brother. The two boys aptly stepped back at her fierceness, not at all minding the wet wall currently soaking the back of their shirts. "Kyoko's worried sick, Ryohei! Especially after last night! And Yamamoto, why are you letting him fight when he's this injured?!"

"Maa, maa, calm down a bit, Kurokawa," Takeshi placated with his free hand. Hana responded by giving him an angry stare. The tall boy sweat-dropped. "It's just a sumo contest, really! Besides, Senpai is not the one who's going to fight tonight. It's one of our teammates, so there's no need to worry about him getting further injured."

Hana tightened her grip on her umbrella's handle. "What sumo contest?! Don't think I'm as easy to fool!" She afterwards lowered her head and gritted her teeth. "Besides, if you're not the one fighting, Ryohei, then why are you still going? Shouldn't you rest that injury of yours at home and just pray that your teammate will win?!"

"I can't." Hana immediately looked up, surprised at the unusual calm tone the white-haired had used. "That teammate of ours is the youngest, and because of that, I—we want to support him to the very extreme. And not just as his seniors, but more so like as his older brothers!"

"Also," Takeshi added, eyes determined and lips smiling, "his opponent looks really tough, so if he gets in a pinch, we need to jump in and save him!"

Hana placed a hand on her forehead and furrowed her brows deeper. "Let me say this again—right now, Kyoko's really worrying about you and your so-called hybrid sumo fight! And if you get hurt more than this, then I don't know if—"

"Kurokawa," Ryohei suddenly called, cutting her off.

The girl snapped up. " _What?!_ "

After making his neck hold his umbrella, Ryohei reached out his uninjured hand and patted Hana's head. He then grinned widely at her. "Thanks for worrying too!"

Hana blushed. "I didn't—!"

"We'll definitely come back as victors," the white-haired interjected again, his hand still on Hana's head, "and we also won't let ourselves get further injured than this. So you and Kyoko shouldn't worry too much."

" ' _Don't worry too much' ?_ " the dark-haired girl repeated before lowering her face once more. "You know, lately, you all have been acting odd—no, more like suspicious, actually. And I'm pretty much sure that you're hiding something, since you have to use something as ridiculous as a sumo fight as a façade." Hana now placed a hand over her closed eyes, and smiled without any hint of mirth. "Why are you boys all stupidly like this?! Hiding everything, as if that will make it easier for us!"

Ryohei narrowed his eyes gently. "I'm sorry." He let go of Hana's head. "We don't really mean to leave you two behind. It's just—it's not a good time right now. But the one thing I can promise you is this—that the day will definitely come when we all be having fun to the extreme together again. So just wait for us, ne?"

"And how long do we have to wait?" Hana asked, head still lowered.

Ryohei smiled sadly. "I don't know."

"…umm, Senpai," Takeshi spoke, a bit timidly, "we have to go now, or else we'll be late."

The white-haired nodded. "Sorry, Kurokawa, but we need to go now." He then turned to the direction of Nami-Chuu. "See you tomorrow." And ran.

Takeshi quickly followed after. "Bye then, Kurokawa! Get home safely!"

Hana didn't respond anymore to their goodbyes. Instead, she turned to the opposite direction, towards her home, and began to walk.

"Asking for us to just wait, that's why we worry too much, you idiot! Because that's the only thing we can do!"

After that, the only sounds the streets could hear where her footsteps, and the pitter-patters of the rain.


	18. Chapter 9: Opening up

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Author's rambling:** Damn descriptive sentences. I did my best.

Oh, and advance Happy Birthday, Hibari-san~

... .. .

 **Chapter 9: Opening up**

"So, are you going to be out the whole day today?" Six a.m. of a pleasant Sunday, four pieces of small, but thick, beef patties were well on their way on the skillet, the gravy already with the ground meats as they cooked thoroughly. Beside the stove, Nana happily chopped some carrots and broccolis for the bento's side dish, while on her right side, Tsuna packed the lunch boxes with white rice, replacing the mashed potatoes that usually went along with the patties.

"Y-Yeah," the younger brunette answered, not sounding quite at all happy. He next placed back the rice-filled orange bento box on the countertop, before he reached out for the purple one and began to fill it with rice. "Hibari-san said yesterday that he wanted to use the whole of today to spa— _teach_ me more about self-defense, since he only got to… um, instruct me less than half a day yesterday." Tsuna mentally berated himself for almost saying the word _spar_ , and groaned inwardly at the thought of another session of it with Hibari. _And for a whole damn day._

He sighed. The sparring sessions, compared to Reborn's training, wasn't really that bad. But since they couldn't use any special moves or Animal Rings—only what his tutor had specified—Tsuna's body hurt a whole _lot_ more than he thought it should. One of the definite reasons he knew for the overwhelming pain was because Hibari had been fighting a lot longer than him—he had more experience in the field, and in comparison to him who had only known how to fight when Reborn had taught him, well, Tsuna just got hit a lot more by Hibari's tonfas than he was able to _graze_ the skylark with his gloves. Fighting for five hours straight may had also help with his body ache.

Tsuna now set the purple bento box aside and closed the rice cooker. His day yesterday with Hibari didn't end with the sparring session—the skylark actually _made_ him help out with the Committee work immediately after the spar, saying it was part of the so-called "training". He had figured that may be the reason why the prefect chose their school's rooftop for the spar, to lessen the trouble of going there.

Although, it wasn't like he was the only one working. Hibari did too, as usual, and it had made him wonder why the raven-haired even agreed to "train" him if he had so much work to do. He also wondered then, as he was seated on the soft green couch, organizing documents, what Hibari had talked about with the future him.

It didn't escape Tsuna yesterday that something was off with his Cloud, though that thought was immediately forgotten when he had heard about the training. It only came back to him that evening in the reception room, and after a great degree of self-encouraging, he had turned to Hibari to ask—if he had, indeed, talked with his future self, if anything from their short exchange bothered him, and if he could, maybe, help him about it—but then he immediately shut his mouth and chose not to ask anymore.

Not with the lost look Hibari had.

 _What did they, no—we?—had talked about?_

"Are you good friends with him, Tsu-kun?"

Back to the present, Tsuna snapped from his reverie and turned to his mother. "Who are you talking about, Kaa-san?"

"Why, Kyoya-kun, of course!" Nana exclaimed. Tsuna visibly cringed at how his mother casually referred Hibari using his first name, and was also curious as to why it looked like she was already used to referring the skylark that way. This, then, reminded him of what he had dismissed yesterday—of Hana and his mother's could-be already formed acquaintanceship. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

Nana just ignored her son's intuition and began to place the side dishes in the rice-filled bentos. "Since you're helping him out three days a week after school, not to mention making him obentos every school day, and now he's teaching you self-defense—to me, it really looks like you're good friends with Kyoya-kun, Tsu-kun. That's why I'm asking if you two actually are."

"Well—we're not, actually…" Tsuna denied as he cleaned the countertop. _Did it really look that way?_ They may had spent a lot of time together compared to before the arrangement, but their relationship were still more that of acquaintances than friends—although, the distance between them _had_ lessened especially because of the obento thing—but it was only a little bit, not enough for friendship.

The young brunette frowned at the remarkably slow progress of his relationship with the skylark. He may had started helping out because he wanted to know the reason behind the familiarity (which he still did not have a single hint about), and also because Reborn had ordered them to; made the obentos and ate lunch with the raven-haired for the sake of the latter's health; and did the self-defense lessons—which in reality were the sparring sessions, only because, again, Reborn had ordered them to— _but_ , his desire to be friends with Hibari just because _he wants_ to and not by any other reason or motive was real and true.

And yet, with how everything was going, Tsuna—"…besides, Kaa-san, I don't even think Hibari-san wants to be friends with someone like me."—couldn't help but lost some of the few ounces of hope he had.

He sighed for the second time. _Why is it so hard to be friends with him?_

On the other hand, a knowing smile found its way to Nana's lips. "Mm-hmm," she hummed. She then placed two thoroughly cooked patties in each of the bento boxes, finally completing their version of Hamburg steak. "You know, Kyoya-kun may be a bit scary and intimidating, but I don't think he's all that. Well, I do think he's a little lonely, but I bet he's actually kind, like you, Tsu-kun." Her eyes narrowed gently. "So please don't give up on him."

Tsuna blinked and faced his mother. "How—"

 _Ding-dong._

"Ah—that must be Kyoya-kun!"

"Eh—" Almost in a blur, Nana placed the lids on the bento boxes, wrapped them with cloths, shoved them in Tsuna's knapsack, before pushing her son towards the door.

The young brunette almost tripped by the strength of his mother's push. " _I-Ittekimasu_!"

" _Hai_ , _Itterasshai_!" Tsuna abruptly paused. "Oh, right, Kaa-san—" He then turned to face his mother. "Kurokawa is going to come by later. I forgot to contact her yesterday, so please tell her that I'm sorry I wasn't able to keep my promise since I'll be—training with Hibari-san the whole day today."

Nana curiously chuckled. "Alright, alright! Now go! Don't keep Kyoya-kun waiting! And," the mother smiled proudly now, "have fun with your date!"

Tsuna seriously barely saved himself from tripping this time. "H-How did this turn into a date?!"

"Well, it's Valentine's day today, isn't it?" Nana answered with a hand on her cheek and head tilted to the side.

"Even if it is, it's not a reason to call this a d-date!" Tsuna explained. Nana smiled first as a response. "Say hi to Kyoya-kun for me!"

Tsuna pouted at his mother's insistence. Deciding not to care anymore, he finally stepped towards the door and opened it—

—and was aptly greeted by Hibari with one, raised eyebrow.

The brunette blushed. _So he heard…_ He then closed the door behind him and smiled shyly at Hibari. "G-Good morning, Hibari-san. Oh, and K-Kaa-san also said hi."

"Hn," the skylark answered before he turned around and walked to the gate.

Tsuna quickly followed behind Hibari, sighing inwardly in relief at the lack of comment to… whatever the older male had heard.

"Here."

The brunette stared in confusion at the orange helmet in Hibari's hand. "Umm… what do I need that for, Hibari-san?"

A single, black brow shot up again. "To ride the motorcycle, of course. The infant _did_ tell you the proper safety measures when he taught you how to ride one, right?"

"Eh?" Tsuna looked past behind Hibari, and only then did he noticed a black and white motorcycle just behind the skylark. _So the rumor about Hibari-san owning a motorcycle is true? But—_ "Wait, wait, wait—aren't we going to spar at school?"

Hibari's raised his other eyebrow. "No."

Tsuna eyed the _gakuran_ jacket the raven-haired was wearing. "Then why are you in your uniform? It's Sunday, right?"

"Because I still need to patrol later." Hibari now shoved the orange helmet to Tsuna's hands, before he mounted the bike and started the engine. "Now hurry up, herbivore. The day's not getting longer."

 _Are_ gakurans _the uniform for the Committee's patrols?_ The brunette wanted to ask but opted not to. He next lifted the orange helmet up, about to wear it, when he paused as another question came to his mind—from the thoughts, or maybe flashback, he had earlier.

The question immediately came out before he could stop it. "Ne, Hibari-san, are you okay now?"

And then, for a second, Tsuna thought Hibari froze—from shock, maybe. But that could have been his imagination, because the next moment Hibari turned to him with a non-defensive curious gaze and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Tsuna waved a hand in front of himself seconds before Hibari decided to put on his helmet. "Ah, sorry, i-it's nothing!" In panic and embarrassment then, he asked another question. "O-Oh yeah, can you tell me where we're going to spar?"

Though the raven-haired's blue-gray eyes where the only part of his face Tsuna could see through the black headgear, he could still somehow sense Hibari's lips _smirking_ at his question. He paled considerably then, and when Hibari refused to give him the answer, he sighed in defeat before he at last wore his helmet. And just mere seconds after he sat on the rear seat, Tsuna had to immediately clutch on the grab rail behind him like his life depended on it—though, maybe this time, it did—all because Hibari straightaway sped forward too fast for anyone's liking.

Thankfully, his deafening screams where muffled by his orange headgear.

... .. .

Tsuna didn't… really expect the place Hibari chose for their sparring session.

It wasn't even that special; and maybe the unexpected ordinariness of the location was what made him gape at it in shock.

It was Namimori Mountain—the very large, thickly forested hill that overlooked the town of Namimori. And if Tsuna recalled correctly, it was also the place where Dino and Hibari had once fought stubbornly and continuously from the second day of the Representative Battle until—well, until he had arrived.

"The topography here is good," the skylark suddenly said, answering Tsuna's unspoken question of the choice of location, and the reason, maybe, behind the smirk earlier. The brunette turned to his right then, to Hibari who was in a small, open shed, locking the security chain on his motorcycle bike.

He decided to ask something that's been bothering him. "…where's Hibird, by the way?"

"I left him with Kusakabe," Hibari answered as he pocketed the keys. "He might wander off too far and get lost if I bring him here, so I had to leave him behind."

 _He really cares about that little bird_ , Tsuna noted. With no more words left to be said then, Hibari went out of the outbuilding and began to trudge up the mountain, making Tsuna follow him in silence too.

Almost an hour later, and still in reticence, the two finally reached the top—or what Tsuna thought was the summit—and into a large clearing, the majestic azure sky openly exposed above them.

Tsuna shivered—because of the cold breeze on his hot skin or because just like the beautiful sky above him, he felt exposed, open; he wasn't really sure. He removed his gaze then from the sky, to relieve the unsettling feelings, and directed it to his front—and got curious at what he saw.

He walked forward, Hibari's pointed gaze ignored as much as possible, before he anchored himself by holding the trunks of the trees on either side of him and next stared—with eyes wide and face forward in complete fascination, at the view before him: Namimori. He could see the _whole town_ of Namimori from where he stood, atop and at the edge of the cliff.

It shouldn't really be a surprise since the mountain was just beside the town, but Tsuna didn't expect to see the whole of his hometown in clear detail—he could distinctly see their school, his house, the park, the shopping district, the cemetery— _and if I can just see this view in the afternoon, at sunset, then—_

Tsuna abruptly crouched down, barely missing a tonfa that had lodged itself with a sickening crunch into the tree to his right. Nervously, he turned to his left, to the skylark sporting a wide, and dangerous smirk on his face.

" _Wao_ , that Hyper Intuition of yours is really something that should be commended, Sawada Tsunayoshi." _Damn._ Tsuna immediately jumped back from the slowly approaching skylark. Cautiously, he placed his knapsack down to the ground, eyes never leaving the raven-haired who was now dislodging his tonfa from the tree, before he swiftly took his mittens out from the bag and swallowed two Dying Will pills.

Orange flames quickly sprouted on Tsuna's forehead, his eyes sharp and bright-orange in resolution. His woolen mittens had long since turned into metal-clad, gold gauntlets, while the now flat, blue crystal emblem of the Vongola Famiglia, which was still affixed to the back of the gloves, had this time the inscription of _Neo Vongola_ surrounding it in beautiful, startling silver.

Before Hibari could attack, Tsuna immediately thrust himself forward using his flames to deliver a quick blow using his right fist—but it never connect, for Hibari was able to block the would-have-been heavy blow using both of his tonfas, now enveloped in cloud flames, and with another smirk on his lips; as if he had _expected_ the move.

 _No—wait, he did._ And in that second of distracted surprise, Tsuna was harshly kicked on his side, sending him far away from his assailant and collided—almost—with a large tree had he not quickly used his flames to stop his flight. He then used his flames again to lunge at Hibari—and this time the raven-haired met him halfway—before he engaged the still-smirking skylark in a fast and heated spar.

Most of the time the two blocked each other's attacks, but Hibari, being the more experienced close combat fighter, landed more blows than Tsuna could scrape him with his gloves, much like their session yesterday. Tsuna's brows furrowed deeper in frustration at this, at the lack of any landed hit—but then—when Hibari was about to strike him with his right tonfa, he somehow saw the move and evaded it by sitting down. He then immediately shot back up and made a move to strike Hibari's left side, but the skylark blocked it, so Tsuna immediately use his flames to quickly semicircle behind Hibari to strike on the latter's right side instead.

Hibari swiftly attacked with his tonfa before Tsuna could—however, his blow collided with nothing but air, making his eyes widen in surprise as he realized too late that Tsuna feinted the strike and had crouched down, finally feeling a fraction of a second later the brunette's metal-clad fist colliding to his face.

Hibari flew back to a tree at the force of the blow, partially breaking the woody plant. Clouds of dust enveloped him soon after he landed, while Tsuna, standing quite some feet from him, gasped when he realized what he had just done.

"Hibari-san! I'm so sorry, are you all right?!" the brunette couldn't help but shout, even if he knew that that was not enough to fatally wound his Cloud. Moments later, Tsuna could finally see Hibari's silhouette walking out from the clouds of dust, right fist on the swell on his left cheek; and when the raven-haired was out at last from the clouds, Tsuna's presently orange eyes widened in shock when he saw his Guardian actually _smirking_.

 _He's having fun_ —was what immediately registered in his mind. A small smile then found its way to his own lips, because he too—though he's quite reluctant to admit—was having fun.

"I guess you've improved, even for just a little bit," Hibari remarked before he turned his face to the side, to spit out the blood that accumulated inside his mouth. "But 'a little bit' isn't really enough." He then lunged, and the two engaged again in another heated spar.

For almost an hour their exchanged blocks and blows were the only sounds that could be heard throughout the mountain—metal against metal, glove against skin, tonfa against muscle—and then, near-abruptly—the noises stopped.

They reached an impasse.

"You know," Hibari began as he tried to overpower Tsuna, as both of his cloud-flame-enclosed tonfas were caught by each of the brunette's gloved hand, "if you can fight this well, then you should use this strength to defeat your occasional bullies. Even if you're not in that Dying-Will assisted mode, you can at least evade them or give them a kick or two."

Tsuna's eyes immediately narrowed at Hibari's suggestion, before he was abruptly kicked by the skylark and stumbled back a good two meter away from him.

"You are not weak," Hibari stated as he walked a few steps forward, stopping only when the brunette had fully straightened himself up. "Maybe before you were, but now you're not."

Tsuna glared once more at his Guardian. _Why is he talking about this again?_ "I already told you last time—that I won't use my power unless it's for protecting my family, and I will never change that, Hibari-san," he declared, earning a scowl from the raven-haired. " _You_ may use violence and fear to discipline others, but I won't. As much as I can, _I won't_."

It was now Hibari's turn to stare angrily at Tsuna, before he abruptly lunged and began sparring again with the brunette.

Their blows this time were much fiercer—and more precise—as it were tainted by the anger they currently had towards each other. The wounds they gave to one another had also increased, blood trickled more from their cuts—and then, in one swift move—Hibari pushed Tsuna back to a tree with his tonfa, knocking the air out of the smaller male.

" _You_ already accepted that you're going to be the boss of a _Mafia_ family, of all things—" Hibari snarled, pressing the cold metal closer to Tsuna's neck, making it harder for him to breath; the brunette in return grabbed with his weakened hands the arm holding the tonfa, but wasn't strong enough to remove it, "and as a boss, as a _leader_ —you need the resolve to punish others so that they won't look down on _you_. Besides, the Vongola Famiglia already has such a bloody history, so why are you still afraid of hurting others?"

"Why, you ask?" Tsuna managed to say through gritted teeth. With a sudden surge of strength then, he pushed Hibari away. "You already said so yourself before, right?! That no one likes to get hurt!" he shouted as he exited from his Hyper Dying Will mode. He looked at his clenched fist. "And I know—I know that the Vongola family has a bloody history, but that's the very reason why I decided to destroy the current Famiglia and create a new one!"

"But—" The Sky cut his words and shook his head. He next returned his gaze back to his Guardian, a fiery resolve now evident in his caramel-brown eyes. "I will never inherit their mistaken actions, and I will make sure that the new Vongola will only use their strength to protect. And as my Guardian, Hibari-san, and also as maybe the external advisor of the new Famiglia, I want you to understand that."

For a moment, Hibari held Tsuna's unclouded gaze. His scowl deepened. "You should fight for yourself too."

"I won't, Hibari-san," Tsuna responded in a calm tone, "and I want you to respect that, just as I respect your way of doing things."

The two locked gazes then as their ideals clashed, as their wills pushed against each other, as none refused to back down. But the deadlock had to end—and it did when Hibari turned around and hid his collapsable tonfas. "This is not over," he declared as he walked away, "I'm going to my patrol, so train by yourself while I'm away. I'll be back after lunch."

Tsuna's brows furrowed and his lips frowned, but he didn't respond—and he knew Hibari didn't expect him to—and only stood there, watching, in silence, as his Cloud disappeared within the thicket of trees.

... .. .

Rewinding the time for a few hours, a certain baseball player spotted a girl who looked a lot like his classmate, but since the girl dressed quite differently (and stylishly he might add) from the person he knew, he hesitated before he finally called out to her.

"Is that you, Kurokawa?"

The girl with the wavy hair tied to the side in a low ponytail turned around. Her sharp eyes narrowed a bit when she recognized the two boys before her—her classmates, Yamamoto and Gokudera. "Yeah, so?"

"Haha, for a second I didn't recognized you there!" Yamamoto admitted. Gokudera stayed quiet and annoyed in the background. "So what's with the get up? Have a date today?"

"Well, yeah, but—

"Wait a minute!" Gokudera abruptly interrupted as he realized something. He next glared at Hana and stomped towards her. "The only house near here that's our classmate's and probably the only person you know is—oi, woman, you're not going on date with Neo Primo, aren't you?!"

Hana was confused. "What? Neo—" She realized then who Gokudera meant. "No—god, no way! I'll never go on a date with Sawada! The name of the man I'm going to have a date with is Lambo! Otona Lambo!"

The silver-haired was clearly appalled. _That idiot cow?!_

"Besides," Hana continued, jabbing a finger to Gokudera's chest partly in annoyance to the silver-haired's reaction, "there are quite a few houses of people I know around here! I lived here far longer than you do, so don't start assuming things about me!"

" _Oi_ , that hurts—"

"Maa, maa, it's still far too early for a fight!" Yamamoto appeased, placing a hand on their shoulder as he did. The two responded with a glare. "Anyway, I don't know who's this Otona Lambo guy, but if you don't want to get late on your date, Kurokawa, you should get going. On the other hand, Gokudera, since you're a man, then you shouldn't be picking a fight with a girl!"

Gokudera stared disbelievingly at Yamamoto. _How fucking dense can this idiot be?!_ He then ruffled his silver locks and sighed. "You're headed to Neo Primo's house, aren't you?" he asked Hana.

"…yeah, since Otona Lambo lives there," the girl reluctantly answered.

Yamamoto's cheerful smile widened. "Oh—then, we should all go together, since we're on our way to Tsuna's house too!"

 _I knew it._ The two shorter people inwardly sigh.

Minutes later, they finally arrived at the front gate of the Sawada house. And not even a minute later, Hana was shouting again.

" _He's out?!_ "

"Yes, and Tsu-kun said he's sorry he wasn't able to keep your promise," Nana relayed. She faced the other two visitors. "How about you two? Are you here to see Tsu-kun too?"

"Well, yes," Yamamoto answered. "Gokudera and I actually decided yesterday to hang out with him today, but we didn't tell him about it, so we didn't know that he already has plans for this day."

"Also, Nana-san," Hana chimed in, a hand to her temples as she held back her anger. "Can you tell us what're this _sudden_ and _important_ plans he have that he forgot to tell?" _Because if he just did yesterday then I wouldn't have to wake up so damn early._

Nana suddenly brightened up with a smile. "Well, you see, today, Tsu-kun has a date with Kyoya-kun!"

The three teenagers blinked.

"What—with _Hibari_?" Gokudera exclaimed. Nana confirmed with a nod. The two childhood friends, on the other hand, looked at each other with a knowing and unsure gaze.

The silent exchange didn't escape the ever suspicious Gokudera.

"Well, if that's how it is, then I'll just go back next week," Hana declared as she turned to the direction of her home.

"We'll come back another time too, ma'am," Yamamoto announced, draping an arm over Gokudera's shoulders in order to move him to the opposite direction to Hana's. The silver-haired pushed it off after.

The three then said goodbye to the brunette mother before they went on their way, the girl back to her house while the two boys somewhere where they could hang out—much to Gokudera's annoyance.

... .. .

It was well past two p.m. when Hibari returned.

In the hours when the prefect was gone, Tsuna tended to his wounds with the first aid kit he brought and trained by himself—or at least, tried to train—before he finally had enough half an hour past noon and decided to just rest and wait for Hibari's return. The two ate their late lunch shortly after the skylark had arrived then, seated separately underneath the shade of the tree of their choice, both uttering not a single word since the older came back.

It actually surprised Tsuna that the prefect didn't eat anything while he was in town—he could see that Hibari had at least applied first aid to his injuries—but the surprise was quickly drowned out by uneasiness at the strained atmosphere, which also cause the two not to enjoy their favorite food.

Immediately after he finished his meal then Hibari took a nap, practically leaving Tsuna alone again. The brunette didn't really mind. He didn't want to talk to Hibari yet, nor spar with him for that matter; he still couldn't let go of his anger at him.

Tsuna knew that Hibari wasn't wrong, that he needed to protect himself too, but he honestly couldn't bring himself to do that if it meant he had to hurt other people—because he _knew_ , from the years of bullying he had experienced, how much it would _hurt_ , not only physically but also emotionally—the humiliation, and fear of the oncoming pain—Tsuna didn't want anyone to experience that, may they be his bullies or not, and he wanted Hibari to understand this reasoning of his, or at the very least, hear it out.

 _I wonder if we can talk this out?_ The brunette asked himself as he turned to look at the napping Hibari a few feet from him. He tightened his clenched fists atop his crossed legs and deepened the furrow between his brows—he wanted to try, and an hour later when Hibari awoke from his nap, he did.

Just after one yawn the skylark stood up and swiftly approached Tsuna, tonfas good and ready. The brunette stayed seated, and though he felt a bit of fear for his well-being, he spoke, "Ne, Hibari-san, can't we—"—and just like that, with words cut off, Tsuna was sent flying through a group of trees with a single strike, knocking down several small saplings as he went through the thicket.

He groaned painfully as he felt not only the new, but also the wounds from earlier reopening. And as he propped himself up using his elbows, Tsuna noticed Hibari approaching him again, the purple flames once more dancing along the surface of the metal tonfas. The skylark wasn't smirking. "I told you, the topography here is good."

 _For hurting_ , Tsuna mentally added. Another groan escaped his lips as he slowly got up. He then stared angrily at Hibari. "Can't you at least listen to what I'm going to say?"

Hibari scowled and glared back. "If you can defeat me," he began as he lifted his flame-envelop tonfa, "then I will."

Tsuna quickly wore his mittens before swallowing the Dying Will pills. Not a second after he entered the Hyper Dying Will mode, he thrust himself forward with his orange flames, engaging Hibari in another furious spar.

Anger had once again sharpened their attacks, and when Hibari rapidly striked with his right tonfa—Tsuna managed to stop the blow by grabbing the weapon. But Hibari was undeterred by this, and immediately after the block he used his other tonfa to strike—but then, once more—Tsuna's other hand grabbed the weapon and stopped him. The skylark growled in frustration.

They were in a stalemate again.

"Is it really that hard to accept my way of fighting, Hibari-san?" Tsuna asked, and when Hibari didn't answer, the brunette creased his brows deeper and gripped the tonfas tighter, before in one swift move he banged his head against Hibari's, making the skylark stumble back and collide with a nearby tree.

Hibari gritted his teeth in pain, and when he detached himself from the woody plant, Tsuna immediately locked gazes with him and glared. He narrowed his eyes back.

"Hibari-san," the brunette called, his calm voice stern, making Hibari stop his approach. "As a person—no, not only as a person, but also as someone who leads—you're strong-willed, self-assured, reliable, and fearless—and these traits of yours, these characteristics, are what I lack as a leader, and honestly, are what I'm also jealous of about you." Hibari's eyes widened a fraction at the confession, and Tsuna, in turn, gave him a sheepish smile.

"But you're also violent," Tsuna continued, the embarrassed smile now gone, "since you use your strength and fear to discipline others—but I respect that, because that's just your way of protecting what's important to you." He then exited his Hyper Dying Will mode, and now gazed at Hibari with his caramel-brown eyes. "That's why I want you to also respect my way of protecting Vongola—of our family, of the people I love—by putting them first before myself, because that's just how precious they are to me, just as how precious Namimori is to you."

Hibari's eyes fully widened at that, and Tsuna smiled warmly at him before he turned his face to the right, to gaze at his hometown that was now basked in the orange glow of the sunset. Hibari turned his eyes to the sunset-lit town too.

"You really love Namimori, don't you?"

Orange skies. A warm smile. A sunset-lit Namimori. An understanding gaze. A little brown bird. Hibari immediately remembered the day Tsuna said the exact same words, at the back garden of their _Yochien_ , when the flowers of the _sakura_ trees were still asleep.

" _You really love Namimori, don't you?"_

As the wind gently picked up, their clothes and the strands of their hair blown around with it, Tsuna's eyes narrowed softly at the town Hibari fervently protected. "As you know, before, I hated the idea of even being involved with the Mafia. I always worried everyday of what kind of Mafia-related things Reborn would push me to, though now that I accepted that I'll be the boss of the new Vongola, those worries are replaced by the fear of not being able to lead the new Famiglia properly, the fear of it one day going back to the days of its bloody history after the Famiglia will be established." Tsuna's smile now turned bittersweet. "Funny, isn't it?"

For the first time in a long, long time, Hibari stroke Tsuna's head. "It's not."

The brunette couldn't help but widened his eyes at the strangely nostalgic touch.

"You were weak, Sawada Tsunayoshi," Hibari continued to stroke, making Tsuna blush a bit, "you always used to cower in fear, run away from danger," _cry easily_ , "constantly be downhearted, but since the infant came you steadily became stronger and stronger, all for the sake of the people you love. You may not be the leader you want to be right now, but surely, one day, you'll _definitely_ be."

Tsuna turned his head to face Hibari, his smile still having a hint of melancholy. The raven-haired's hand hadn't left his hair. "Thank you, Hibari-san."

Hibari narrowed his eyes tenderly. "I —about earlier, I still can't accept your way of fighting—your way of protecting by putting others first before yourself, but," he gave Tsuna's head another stroke, "I can, at the very least, respect it, your way of doing things." _Your will._

Tsuna's smile now no longer held any trace of sadness—only warmth, affection. "Really, Hibari-san, thank you."


	19. Interval IX

**Title:** Their Bonds

 **Summary:** He may have forgotten, but they never did—not the days they ran underneath the scorching sun in the name of adventure, or the mundane breaks where they talked about rumors that only held truths. No one would ever dare to forget those days—most especially, a certain lone Cloud.

 **Genre:** Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Humor

 **Warnings:** Swearing and OOC-ness.

 **Episode(s)/Chapter(s):** Ch. 323

 **Author's note:** So, uh, well—

Hi.

It's been a month since my last update, and though I know most of you don't mind it as long as I don't abandon this fanfic (like hell I will), I still feel the need to offer an apology for the lack of, well, updates. I had promised, as written in the author's note in Interval VIII, that there'll be, at most, an update once every two weeks. But as you all had witnessed, that declaration just went regrettably down the drain.

I wasn't busy or anything. Honestly - and quite mortifyingly, I confess, the two reasons I wasn't able to do any updates were because of laziness and neglect. And though I know this - procrastination, is quite common for fanfic authors, since I'm a serious person in general - this has been a really big letdown for me.

So, in order to not feel that big tub of disappointment again, I'll strive to be a better author now. But I won't make any promises yet, since I tend to break those too easily, but I'll at least try to shorten the time between updates.

Another thing - you see, well, I want to offer another apology, since after waiting for a month, this time's update is only a rather short interval.

(Sorry.)

But I also want to thank you dear readers for waiting this long, though maybe not patiently, and for reading this whole, uh, long note.

Again, sorry for the delay, and the shortness, and until the next update - ciao!

... .. .

 **Interval IX: What we can never give up**

He had told him to watch his fight.

—a lot of annoying things had come up ever since they came back from the future. Starting from those transfer students, particularly Suzuki Adelheid, who so much as dared to make a claim on _his_ territory; the injuring of one of the students from his school, of one of the few people he consider as a _nakama_ , though he would only ever admit that to himself; then the damage his pride had taken; and lastly, and most irritating of all—

"Whys is someone like you with the likes of Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

That dull, utterly empty look they made Tsuna wore.

"This is the end," Kyoya stated, his reinforced tonfa just an inch away from properly smashing the Simon Guardian's face.

Adelheid regrettably admitted her defeat. "But Enma will surely revive Simon, no matter what the cost. And you will eventually regret siding with the Vongola."

"I'm not on anyone's side," Kyoya next declared. He didn't make any movement that betrayed his words. "I only do whatever I want to do."

Adelheid deepen her glare as she turned her face a bit to the side. "You truly are a floating cloud, uncontrollable by any being… So in the end, you've become the Vongola Cloud Guardian of the great Sky."

Kyoya closed his eyes. He wondered if what he wanted to say to Tsuna got through. "I don't like the way you phrased that…" He wondered, if the boy had realized what his own pride was—his _strength_ —that something that he could never surrender and should fight for in this war. "But… you do have a point."

In the next moment, Hibird spread his wings and flew.

When they were young—cold, fearsome, and scarred he may be, Tsuna still accepted him, and let him be who he sought to be. And just like that, the brunette continued to welcome queer people like him in his life—though at times, not so willingly.

Kyoya now opened his eyes. A smirk spread on his face as he looked up at the wide, blue sky. "It is the sky after all," he could feel locks of his hair move around as it got tousled by the wind, "that allows the cloud to move about freely."

Tsuna's strength was his _nakama_ —his friends, his comrades. They were the pride the brunette could never surrender. Once he become aware of that, then, surely, that dull look would immediately be wiped off from his face. Definitely, he would come to know what he must do to end this strife with the other little animal positively.

And most certainly, he would realize how many people were now by his side, giving him strength—making him strong.

Kyoya's smirk grew wider. "But someday, I will even bite up the sky itself."


End file.
